I’m not a sports guy. I love tech, nerdy things, comedy and movies. For the better part of the year I use my DVR and fast forward through all commercials. If I catch a commercial it is certainly not on purpose. Not so with the Big Game. Every year I watch for the funniest commercials, the movie trailers and pretty much everything except for the football taking place.

This year I will be on the lookout for the Kia “Drive the Dream” commercial. The commercial will be showcasing Kia’s 2012 Optima Limited. I’m participating in a Twitter Party on Thursday February 2, 2012 from 7-8pm EST to get the word out about the commercial and also get a chance to check it out before it debuts. I’ve seen a few teaser videos for the commercial and also know about the content of the commercial (see Press Release below for more info). I’m looking forward to Mötley Crüe performing Kickstart Your Heart (my favorite Mötley Crüe song) being a part of this commercial as well as seeing what crazy dreams come from the mind of a guy who gets a super shot of “Sweet Dreams” from Mr. Sandman.

The commercial is 60 seconds long and will air in the fourth quarter of the Big Game. Prior to that date the commercial will air at movie theaters across the country on more than 18,000 movie screens nationwide in National CineMedia’s FirstLook pre-show program before airing in the game.

I’m pretty excited to be a part of this Twitter party and my friends Adam (@DadaRocks) and Josh (@DadStreet) will be a part of this party, they are always entertaining. There will also be Daniel from @M_oa_SD from http://www.MemoirsOfADatingDad.com and also Ryan Reagan of http://daddydigest.com/ and @daddydigest. If you’d like to participate please make sure that you follow those guys as well as the hashtag #KiaSandman and of course @Kia. See you at the Party on Thursday!

Disclosure: I have accepted a prepaid gift card and potentially other compensation from Kia Motors America, Inc. in exchange for my services to promote Kia’s Twitter Party being held between 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. ET on February 2, 2012.

KIA MOTORS DREAMS UP SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL STARRING SUPERMODEL ADRIANA LIMA, ROCK LEGENDS MÖTLEY CRÜE AND MMA FIGHTER CHUCK LIDDELL

“Mr. Sandman” Brings a Dream to an Unsuspecting Couple in 60-Second Spot to Introduce New 2012 Optima Limited; Kia is First to Premiere Super Bowl Ad in Movie Theaters

• “Drive the Dream” campaign’s soundtrack includes The Chordettes’ recording of “Mr. Sandman” and Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart”
• Noam Murro, director of the upcoming Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ “300” prequel, helms fast-growing automaker’s Super Bowl ad for second consecutive year

IRVINE, Calif., January 25, 2012 – Dreams have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout history, and Kia Motors America (KMA) is tapping into the idea of dreams revealing true desires in a new 60-second commercial set to air during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVI. In the spot, titled “Drive the Dream,” the new 2012 Optima Limited races through a Gen X couple’s wildest thoughts as they sleep, including: Victoria’s Secret® Angel Adriana Lima waving the checkered flag at a speedway; an in-your-face Mötley Crüe concert; mixed martial arts legend Chuck Liddell battling in the ring; a heroine and hunk on horseback in a romance novel setting; champion bull rider Judd Leffew taming a bucking rhinoceros; and a fairy tale ending.

Kia returns to the big game for the third straight year with a fully integrated marketing campaign incorporating TV, cinema, digital, print, social media and in-dealership components. In a Super Bowl advertising first, the complete “Drive the Dream” ad will premiere on February 2 on more than 18,000 movie screens nationwide in National CineMedia’s FirstLook pre-show program before airing in the game. Kia also will run 15-second teaser ads featuring Adriana Lima on TV and in cinema beginning on January 27, while also leveraging the Twitter and Facebook channels of the spot’s celebrity cast. A special expanded version of the ad will be available at YouTube.com/Kia beginning on February 2.

“With more than 100 million people watching the Super Bowl broadcast and millions more viewing content online around the world, Kia will once again deliver a memorable, one-of-a-kind campaign that entertains people before, during and after the game and leaves them wanting to see the Optima Limited fantasy again and again,” said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing & communications, KMA. “We selected an eclectic group of celebrities and personalities for ‘Drive the Dream’ to enable us to tap into a diverse body of fan bases and leverage each talent’s expansive social media footprint.”

Created by David&Goliath, “Drive the Dream” opens with the familiar notes of The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” as a real-life Mr. Sandman enters the bedroom of an unsuspecting young couple who are asleep. After being sprinkled with “Sweet Dreams” dust, the woman smiles and envisions herself on a horse with a romance novel-like hunk in a beautiful green meadow. Meanwhile, Mr. Sandman accidentally stumbles and spills his entire night’s dust supply on the man, launching an extreme dream sequence that begins with the roaring guitars of Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” and Adriana Lima waving a checkered flag as he blasts around a race track at night in a Snow White Pearl Optima Limited with thousands of bikini-clad fans cheering him on from the stands.

As he circles the track with Lima looking on adoringly, the dreaming driver receives nods of approval from the band as bursts of flames and fireworks surround their stage as well as Chuck Liddell, champion bull rider Judd Leffew, and a pair of lumberjacks sawing a massive submarine sandwich.

“Mötley Crüe had a blast doing the Kia commercial,” said bassist Nikki Sixx. “A hot model, a fast car, a pro fighter, pyrotechnics and rock n’ roll…What’s not to love?”

Much to the disbelief of Lima and drummer Tommy Lee, the high-octane dream turns into a fairy tale when the husband makes a conscious decision to drive the Optima Limited off the race track and into his wife’s fantasy to win her back from Prince Charming.

“After working with Kia for the Super Bowl last year I was drawn to work with the fast-growing brand again by the idea of exploring people’s ultimate fantasies in a fun and lighthearted way, and I am certain we have created a spot people will be talking about after the game,” said director, Noam Murro.

As part of the “Drive the Dream” campaign, beginning on Thursday, February 2 consumers can download a $25 pre-paid test drive voucher (*1) at Kia.com that is redeemable after eligible consumers visit a Kia dealership and complete a test drive of any Optima model.

New for 2012 (*2), the Optima Limited adds a new level refinement to the premium technology, convenience and performance features found on Kia’s award-winning turbocharged Optima SX. In addition to head-turning design, class-leading horsepower and fuel efficiency and a class-exclusive panoramic sunroof, the Optima Limited offers elegant touches that modern drivers would expect to find in the car of their dreams, such as: unique design 18-inch wheels, high-grade Nappa leather seating, LED accent lights, chrome exterior accents and sporty red brake calipers.

Kia’s Unprecedented Growth

Kia Motors is the one of the world’s fastest moving global automotive brands; from 2009-2011 Kia launched more new vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker, and under the guidance of chief design officer Peter Schreyer earned a reputation as an industry leader in automotive styling. Kia Motors America’s full line of fuel-efficient and fun-to-drive cars and CUVs has earned critical acclaim and dramatically increased consumer awareness, perception and consideration for the brand. In 2011, KMA recorded its 17th consecutive year of market share growth, thanks in part to the largest increase of any major brand in perceived quality (*3) and the industry’s highest brand loyalty ranking (*4). Kia’s U.S.-based manufacturing facility in West Point, Georgia – KMMG – is responsible for the creation of more than 10,000 plant and supplier jobs and builds the company’s two best-selling vehicles in the U.S. – the Sorento CUV and Optima midsize sedan (*5). Kia’s value and technology-laden 2012 model year lineup also includes the Sportage compact CUV, Soul urban passenger vehicle, Optima Hybrid, Forte compact sedan, Forte 5-door compact hatchback, Forte Koup two-door coupe, all-new Rio and Rio 5-door sub-compacts and Sedona minivan.

About Kia Motors America

Kia Motors America is the marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea. KMA offers a complete line of vehicles through more than 755 dealers throughout the United States and serves as the “Official Automotive Partner of the NBA.” In 2011, KMA recorded its best-ever annual sales total and became one of the fastest growing car companies in the U.S. Kia is poised to continue its momentum and will continue to build the brand through design innovation, quality, value, advanced safety features and new technologies.

Information about Kia Motors America and its full vehicle line-up is available at its website – www.kia.com. For media information, including photography, visit www.kiamedia.com.

*1 – Test drive offer is valid from 2/1/12 to 3/31/12. To be eligible, test-driver must be 18 years of age or older with a valid driver’s license. This offer is non-negotiable and non-transferable. One $25 Kia pre-paid vouncher per household. See Kia.com for complete terms and conditions.

*5 – Optima Hybrid is not built at KMMG

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Kia’s “Drive the Dream” Twitter Party

I started as an Isis Parenting Fellow today. I went to the Needham store to have a meeting with other Isis Parenting Fellows and to discuss the strategic plan for what we are going to do for the coming year. I’m pretty excited for this new adventure and look forward to introducing you more to the Isis Parenting brand which is pretty amazing. Isis Parenting is not just a Baby Store it is so much more than that. There is a whole education and classroom component to the company. There are Prenatal classes, New Moms, 2nd Time Moms, Breastfeeding, Fitness & Massage and even Sleep Consults.

I stuck around after the meeting and I learned more about the store and the company and toured the place. I’m really looking forward to working more with Isis Parenting in the coming year.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

I am an Isis Parenting Fellow for 2012

For the past couple of months I’ve been part of a team of Dads who were creating a brand new blog called Dad Revolution. We were supposed to launch back on April 1st but that didn’t happen. We needed a few more tweaks to get the site ready. I’m glad too that it wasn’t launched that day because for too long Dads have been seen as the joke. In movies, on TV and comic strips Dad is the bumbling buffoon. I joined Dad Revolution to help put a stop to that stereotype of the inept, pratfalling moron or worse the Dad that sneaks off and avoids helping his wife and spending time with his kids.

Each one of the “revolutionaries” has his own reason for being a part of the team, take a look at our new blog http://dadrevolution.com/

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Dad Revolution Launches

Today I received my raffle prize from Market Leverage. They had a raffle to coincide with the Bowl-A-Thon that they had to raise money for the Niemann-Pick Children’s Fund. I won a Fip Mino HD. It is pictured there with the Flip Mino HD that I bought recently and added my own branding to it. Allison is now the proud owner of a Market Leverage Branded Flip Mino HD. Look for it at IZEAFest 2009.

Since I don’t live in Orlando I was unable to be there in person so I decided to do my own little bowl-a-thon of my own. I did it playing Wii bowling. I had two great games too with scores of 181 and 191. People could sponsor me at $0.10 a pin (and yes Stephen that is how you sponsor a Bowl-A-Thon pins = points for sponsors). I’m not sure if anyone actually did but I hope so. I bought 10 raffle tickets and sponsored Tim Jones at the true Bowl-A-Thon.

I also sent down some Photo-A-Day Calendars and a couple of BenSpark.Com Hats. The hats went to Dina Riccobono and she had the hats for a little while. She gave up the hats so that one of the participants could take one of them home. However, she took a picture wearing one of them.

Today I also received a card from the Stults family. That was really nice of them. All the thanks is not necessary I’m just so happy to help people who need help.

If you’d like to help a cause you can check out Be Responsible: Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. We are raising money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer with the team Walking 4 2nd Base. The event is at the Speed of Thought Playhouse.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

No, Thank You!

This October I am attending IZEAFest 2009. I’ve been to many blogger conventions over the years (Blog World Expo, PostieCon, and IZEAFest) and I’ve come up with a list of essential items that you must have to go to one of these blogger conferences.

Did you know that you can Enter to win many of the prizes on this page. Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

10. XShot – This simple gadget for your digital camera is the perfect accessory to have with you at a blog conference. I had the xshot 1st and gave it to some great bloggers. Ted Murphy has taken the use of this gadget to the next level though.

With an XShot you can make sure that you are in the photos with everyone. Being seen at blog conferences is very important. And being able to share photos of yourself with cool people like John Chow is fun.

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I’ve been drinking this stuff for the past month. I won a case from Martha Decker and also received one for Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs from Jeremy Kendall. BluFrog Energy Drink is pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve done my own trials with it and I can tell you it keeps you awake and alert during meetings and on those boring days. Of course IZEAFest will be anything but boring. But the nights will be long so you are gonna need a healthy pick me up.

8. Digital Camera – So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. My camera of choice for a quick shoot is the Canon Powershot Digital Elph. I have a Canon SD800is and there are many newer ones out now.

Canon cameras are fantastic. There is even a group that has hacked the camera to run some great scripts. I use one all the time called the Ultra Intervalometer. This allows me to set the camera to take pictures at a specific interval. I’ve used this in a few creative ways. Like attaching it to the shopping cart to take Eva to the store.

7. ZINK Paper - ZINK paper is some pretty fun stuff because you can use it in interesting ways. I use this product with a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It makes the interaction so personal and gives you at least a minute or two to talk with that person while the image prints and you put it on the business card. I did this at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs and will be doing it again at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a Simple Tech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Pirillo.

5. Power – We’re all looking for a little power but in this case I’m talking about power for your gadgets. I’ve had an iGo for years and after 7 years it gave up the ghost, that was seven hard travel years. I was able to power three laptops, seven cell phones, and various other gadgets. When the iGo died I got a Targus that did the exact same thing, in fact I was able to use my iGo peripheral charger with the Targus. With these products you can power up in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I was watching the cake plow at IZEAFest last year and John Chow was able to scoop the video of Ted Murphy being slammed into the cake. I had a different video camera and it wasn’t fast enough to catch that moment. If you want to catch a moment you have to be ready all the time. And even if you capture a moment you want to make sure you get that moment posted quickly. The Flip Mino HD has all the software you need to edit and upload your movies.

3. Business Cards – Two years ago I made 250 free cards with VistaPrint. They were good but sort of random. I had printed out 100 of my photo-a-day photos and stuck them to the cards. Creative but didn’t get my message across. This past year I made Moo cards with two designs one with my hands everywhere and the other of a rubber ducky that looks like me. These cards made a visual impact on everyone who got them. This year I plan to do something similar but to incorporate the PoGo, ZINK Paper and XShot into the mix.

2. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

Allison owns a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 she is able to do so much more now online because she is portable. She’s even applied for a job with Ravelry, I hope she gets it.

1 – A Ticket to IZEAFest 2009 – This is pretty much the most important thing that you need for IZEAFest, you need a ticket. You can buy one at $229.00 which not only includes an incredible lineup of speakers including 2 full days of amazing speakers and events plus a blogger takeover day at SeaWorld!

So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great tings to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

And look here for a contest where I will give away some IZEAFest tickets. Heck I’d love to give away this complete list to some lucky bloggers, but I need some sponsors to help me out. Contact me through the contact form and let me know if you are interested in being a sponsor. I already have sponsors for the PoGo and ZINK Paper, XShot, IZEAFest Ticket and Flip Mino HD.

Today’s assignment for Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to write a list post. I’d been toying with the idea of this list for a while and the assignment gave me the push I needed.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009