Several months ago at SES - San Jose we met Marcus (aka, Mediadonis) from CIA.de.  Marcus is one of the top SEO’s in the world and is well-known throughout Germany as one of their top SEO’s and internet marketers.  Let’s put it this way, when Michael Jones, Pepperjam’s COO suggested to Marcus that Pepperjam and CIA talk about a partnership in Germany Marcus said, “I don’t even get out of bed for less than $100K per month.”  Now that’s aggressive.  LOL.  However, after spending several days with Marcus in San Jose and learning that he truly is a bad ass internet marketer, we thought it would be a great idea to meet up with Marcus for a long weekend in New York City to prospect business in Germany, discuss search arbitrage in the United States, and to enjoy a long-weekend of fun, friendship, and celebration….yada, yada, yada.

The meeting place was NYC.  Representing from Pepperjam were Robyn Martin (Pepperjam’s Director of Affiliate Marketing), Michael Jones (Pepperjam’s COO / General Counsel), Tracy Chesman (Vice-President of igourmet.com) and myself.  Marcus arrived from Germany on Friday with his beautiful girlfriend Cloudia.

CLICK HERE for pictures from the trip.

Day #1:

Marcus and Cloudia arrived at the swanky Bryant Park Hotel on Saturday around 1:00pm EST where both Michael and I had rooms.  Michael and I spent all day Saturday with Marcus, while the girls (Robyn, Tracy & Cloudia) went shopping.  Room service was a little caught off gaurd when I called them at like 1:15pm to order a few 6-packs of beer - they told me that the downstairs bar didn’t actually start serving alcohol until 5:00pm - I reminded them that I was paying $750 a night for a suite and that I’d like some premium beer for a business friend from Germany…10 minutes later I got a call back from the front desk and they asked me if Stella Artois would be OK - Stella - absolutely!  Anyway…a few hours and Stella’s later we were blown away by Marcus - he is the real deal and his SEO skills are as solid as just about any industry person I’ve ever met.  By the way, I’ve been in this industry for a very long time.  Yes, he’s aggressive and clearly understands the benefits of a blend of black and white hat, but what is most impressive is that Marcus has created a number of really cool SEO tools that can be used anywhere, regardless of geographical location.  In short, this SEO Rockstar is for real.

After nursing some Stella’s at the Bryant Park we decided to meet-up with the girls for a quick drink prior to coming home and showering before a night on the town.  Robyn wanted to eat at Asia De Cuba; however, they were booked so Tracy recommended we eat at Sushi Samba, which turned out to be an outstanding choice. Dinner was amazing, the espresso martini’s were off-the-hook, and we had an awesome experience.  After Sushi Samba we went back to the Bryant Park Hotel, home to one of the premier clubs and celebrity hangouts in NYC - the Cellar Bar.

By the way, Marcus is co-host of seoFM.com - the German equivalent of Webmasterradio.fm.  In addition, rumor has it that Marcus and his co-host have been given their own show on WebmasterradioFM with a start date sometime in early 2007.

Day #2:

After shopping most of the day away on 5th Avenue in NYC we decided to stop by Madame Tussauds wax museum on 42nd and Broadway.  We all had a blast - it is quite amazing that just about all of the celebrities and political icons look so real even up close.  After Madame Tussauds we went to one of my favorite Italian resturant’s in the city called Patsy’s.  Once again dinner was amazing - we actually sat next to Peter Falk (aka Columbo), which was pretty cool.  There was also some celeb game show host that we couldn’t figure out his name or what show he was on.

Day #3:

On Monday we met up at American Airlines Theatre for the 24-Hour Plays - sponsored in part by our client igourmet.com.  The 24 Hour Plays is an on-broadway production that includes a “one-time only” cast of celebrities who get together 22 hours before show time…it is the first time they are all together - the celebrities break into groups (usually 4 - 6) and are assigned a director and the other usual production folks (sound, lights, etc.).  Get this…for the first meeting the only thing the celebrity actors are asked to contribute is a prop and some ideas for a story line.  After a few hour introduction among the actors and directors, the actors go home only to come back early the next morning (around 7:00am or so) to learn their acting roles and begin practicing their scripts that will become a LIVE Broadway production later that evening.  By the way - the directors don’t sleep - they write, edit, produce, and re-write the script throughout the night.  One of the directors was Andrew McCarthy - the dude from Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Weekend at Bernie’s II (loved that!).

You’re probably thinking - why would all these actors and actresses volunteer to participate in the 24 Hour Plays?  Easy - the production benefits Working Playground, an extraordinary non-profit organization that helps to promote art and music in underserved schools and communities.  I became involved with the 24 Hour Plays three-years ago when a personal friend of mine, Spencer Chesman, President & CEO of igourmet.com, invited me to the event.  As I mentioned, igourmet is a sponsor of the event (they provided all the cheese and gourmet foods to the actors prior to the event.

The celebrity line-up for this event was highlighted by Jennifer Aniston - in fact, this was Jennifer Aniston’s broadway debut so you can imagine the amount of paparazzi in attendance - it was crazy!  Other actors and actresses included Elizabeth Berkley, Erika Christensen (TV’s 6 Degrees), David Cross, Rachel Dratch, Michael Ealy, Gabrielle Hoffman, Matthew Lillard, Anthony Mackie, Julianna Margulies, Rosie Perez, Sam Rockwell, Liev Schreiber, Pablo Schreiber, Wallace Shawn, Fisher Stevens and Catherine Tate (The Catherine Tate Show, Doctor Who), and Nia Vardalos, with directors Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl), Andrew McCarthy, Ian Morgan (The New Group), Josie Rourke and Indhu Rubasingham and writers including Adam Bock, David Ives and Adam Rapp.

A bunch of friends met-up at the pre-party.  Brock Siegel (Pepperjam’s Vice-President of Business Development) drove to NYC for the event as did a bunch of executives from igourmet.  Pepperjammers Robyn Martin and Mike Jones also attended the pre-party, along with other close friends of igourmet and Pepperjam.

The play began at around 8:00pm.  The actual production of the play is quite amazing - the fact that the actors had less than 12 hours to learn their scripts and put on the play make for a great LIVE show - My favorite actors were probably Jennifer Aniston, Rachel Dratch (SNL), Wallace Shawn (Vincini in The Princess Bride), Rosie Perez, and Elizabeth Berkley (Showgirls / Saved by the Bell).  When Julianna Margulies (ER) forgot her lines and did an impromtu comedy skit it was pretty impressive - she is really an awesome actress.

After the show (around 10:30pm) we had tickets for the VIP after-party.  If you haven’t been to a celebrity, red carpet after-party it’s a pretty bad ass experience.  Just become friends with Pepperjam and we’ll take you to one.  All of the actors and actresses were readily accessible (aside from getting their picture taken by paparazzi and talking to reporters) at the party.  Marcus and Cloudia met up with us for the after party - they seemed like they had an awesome time and really enjoyed meeting a lot of the celebs.

I should mention that Pepperjam’s own Brock Siegel was interviewed by E! Entertainment Television about how he thought Jennifer Aniston performed - he had calls from all over the country from friends and industry people who saw his brief interview.  By the way - we want to thank Brock for wearing his pepperjamMANAGEMENT t-shirt - you never know when you are going to get interviewed by the national press…LOL.

Well..the night did eventually have to end and we had to part with Marcus and Cloudia.  However, we had a simply amazing several days hanging out with this SEO Rockstar and sweet model girlfriend - we look forward to working with Marcus on some Pepperjam Germany initiatives.

Until next year…

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 7:05 pm and is filed under SES - San Jose 2006, Inc. 500, search-engine marketing, affiliate marketing, internet marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.