There've been some grievance as of late about Elliott's marketing being a bit US-centric. This is the reality, and I'm sure there's a reason for it. But, I was wondering if Elliott's management team might be open to endorsing foreign "grassroots" efforts by his fans. We've got the iSquad, which has already been proven to be accessible only to US fans. Why can't international fans start a MySpace and/or Friendster (or similar site) page for Elliott that can be endorsed by E's management team?

My thought is that these "endorsed" pages will have legitimate Elliott content (akin to his official MySpace page), but will be in the country's/region's language (i.e. Filipino, Japanese, Hebrew, etc.). I think that something like this will help in the international marketing of Elliott while he continues to pursue the indie route.

Each page will need to have a dedicated administrator (or group of administrators) who will be responsible for keeping them as updated as Elliott's US-based pages. For example, whenever Elliott posts a new blog entry, a translated version will be available at these international pages.

Does anyone have any other ideas about how we can make this happen? I'd hate for our international fans to feel as if they're missing out on opportunities to spread the word about their Idol.

I'd like very much for Elliott's management team to consider this.

What a great idea!

WE NEED TO GET ELLIOTT'S INTERNATIONAL FANS INVOLVED. THEY MUST FEEL LEFT OUT. :etrain: 4LIFE

You can probably send a message to Elliott or comment on his MySpace about this suggestion. It's a good idea....especially for the Japanese fans! I know that English is the Philippines' second language and the people back home should not have a problem reading or communicating in English...nevertheless, we will have posters or members who want to post in their national language, di ba?

I don't have a MySpace account yet so I would appreciate if someone else can relay the message on my behalf. :)

NEVER MIND: I just created a MySpace account. I'll go ahead and post him a message. Thanks!

Hi, i might be a bit off topic here, also excuse my ignorance... can we expect the album to be released inernationally too? merr pointed out that even taylor's CD is not available in the Philippines after more than a month since its release here in the US.

Does it depend on Sony Music Philippines for example to distribute/release it there too? Or does elliott need separate publishing contracts per country? i am very much unknowledgeable about this. I just hope fans in our respective countries would request for Movin On at their local radio stations and hopefully prompt international music companies to release elliotts music.

Even though I can probably buy elliotts album here and send it to my country for my friends and family, I wont be able to do that for all the other fans back home! :no:

hmm, i am not sure too how the distribution is going to work. thus, i too am not sure if the album is ever going to be available here in the philippines. still, there's always digital downloads but even that of course is handicapped. hmm...

ETA: i do think the international liasions is a great idea.

I think this is a great idea. We've talked about things like a local website on the Israeli thread and between ourselves, but none of us has the vaguest idea how to set up a website - no html experience, no web experience, period!
The site could be bilingual. Most people here know enough English to get by - some know it well. The Hebrew would be a must though.

It makes my hair stand on end to hear that you can't get Taylor's CD in the Philippines yet... Can't you order it online via Amazon? 'cos this is probably how we're going to get it over here at first.

Maybe Elliott's team wants to invite me over to discuss this?
:justkidding:
(Looking for any way I can to get over there and meet him)

youre right about amazon courtie. but what about the majority of the potential CD buyers who arent as online-shopping savvy? think: jasmine trias = philippines is to elliott yamin = israel. he's probably big over there!!! :woohoo:

just a thought: am a bit worried if taylor, the american idol couldnt get his CD released in the Philippines or other countries what are the chances elliott (independent) can?

anyway pdx's idea regarding elliott websites/friendster/myspace per country is actually a perfect way to spread the word about elliotts music and to DEMAND radio airplay internationally. high demand for radio airplay might help boost the chances of his album being released in those countries.

well, to be honest, i'm not really surprised that taylor's cd didn't get released here. there really isnt much, well let's just say, enthusiasm for his music here. i haven't even heard "do i make you proud" play on mainstream radio around here. very much unlike a moment like this or i believe or inside your heaven.

so i can understand how local music distributors would think twice about selling taylor's cd here, especially since piracy is pretty rampant here (you can buy anybody's album off the pirates for about 35 pesos -- that's less than a dollar. an original version costs about 10 times as much so only the really good albums will ever sell original copies and given the ho-hum fandom taylor has here, well...)

Unfortunately, VERY unfortunately actually, Elliott is hardly known in Israel because AI was not publicized at all last year and was screened on a local channel that very few people here watch. I watched AI on an Asian channel (Star World) and wasn't even aware of the fact that it was on one of the local channels ! That's how little it was publicized!

Only this year have they finally woken up to the fact that AI is BIG and are screening it on a very popular channel at prime time. I am really angry about this, because they missed THE season - the one that they absolutely SHOULD have shown on prime time popular TV, because of Elliott Yamin and his connection to this country. (This is besides my own total adoration of him no matter what his background is).

As far as Israel goes, if the artist does not become popular here, e.g. by exposure via MTV, VH1, the artist's CDs will not be imported for local sale. I assume this is the same in the Philippines and other countries. And that's why Taylor's CD isn't yet available there yet = lack of popular demand.

The whole idea of starting a website here is to help get Elliott's name out there. We have also discussed (on the Israeli thread and between ourselves on the phone) contacting channel 3 - the popular channel now screening AI6 - specifically a prime time entertainment personality on that channel - and trying via him to get Elliott's name out there.

We won't be able to request to hear Elliott on the radio until he has a CD available here, so we have to publicize him like mad without radio airplay. I thought of buying a few of Elliott's CDs on Amazon and sending a copy to each of a few select radio stations so that we can make requests for his music.

As I see it, we do need endorsed EY websites in specific international regions.

And thanks PDXJon, for understanding how we feel 'out here', not being able to be a part of this important stretch of Elliott's ride.

A BIT???!!! Talk about understatement! I definitely have comments but am bogged down at work...later!

lol, methinks sherwood's got a lot to say. hahaha.

but courtie makes several good points in her previous posts. such really is the cse for us non-US locals. the best way to really go around that is to try to put his name out there. AI is pretty popular in here already, and a lot of filipinos are actually elliott fans as evidenced by a lot of filipino online users here(what can i say? we filipinos have good taste in music. lol.)

the only piece missing in the puzzle really is that elliott delivers on the goods by putting out a really great album that will have songs that will constantly be on the local airplay (that, we can definitely take care of, for sure).

Another thing I wanted to say was that VH1 and MTV are about the best way to get Elliott seen and heard all over the world, immediately. Programs like TRL for example.
So once Elliott's single and then CD come out, I suggest that we all request Elliott, from whatever country we are in. I could get my kids and their friends to request separately too, so that the requests come from a bigger number of people.
My kids would gladly do it - they love how much joy Elliott has given me. He's almost a part of our family now!
:justkidding: but not entirely... that's what it feels like!
In Israel we get MTV Europe, for example, and there are enough of us in Europe to make regular requests. Which MTV screens in the Philippines? (just out of curiosity - maybe we could join forces!)

Great idea Courtie. We defintely need something for the International fans. The potential for sales is huge and will be untapped if we cannot get his name out there. We did not hear much of Taylor here in Canada either. Now to be fair, I think at the time our radio stations were promoting our Canadian Idol Eva Avila but we won't get any airplay if we can't get E's name out there.

I would love to get a few cd's out to some stations but we haven't even been told yet if his music will be released here.

Do I sound a little grumpy? Hope his management team realizes that they are alienating a lot of die hard E fans.

I noticed some comments regarding language barriers. Hope these help if anyone is unaware of these services on the Internet. These are three I use but there are lots more. Just do a search for “language translation”

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/text.html

http://translation2.paralink.com/

lothlorien thanks for pointing out the piracy issue :( guess all the more we should make elliott big over there! ive heard from friends back home that ayala philippines was able to bring constantine maroulis to the country in 2005- http://www.sonymusic.ph/news.asp?key=176&c...who=Constantine hmm maybe sway and elliott to appear in ABS or GMA?

i love that! courtie maybe in a separate thread you could give us the steps/guidellines on how to approach radio stations. i could probably try that. buy a few copies of it once it comes out and have my family back home send it to local stations (cebu, phils). though i am here in the US i want elliott to be big in my country too! maybe from now til the album comes out we coud prepare as to how to make Movin On available for the radio stations in our respective countries. so far, "etrain international" have two great ideas: 1. pdxs elliott websites by country/region 2. courties radio station submissions! keep it coming! we'd all love to help!

I like all the ideas I'm reading. IMO there has to be an ambassador for each foreign fan base, who knows the native language. And there has to be somebody with enough time to pull this all together. Maybe a web-savvy person can make one huge foreign fansite made up many different languages; I just know there aren't more international fans on this site and others because the English is too baffling to be bothered with, and fansites are supposed to be fun, not tedious translation work!

Remember when This Christmas came out, Etrainers found a way to send it to internationals? And this time around, generous Etrainers are offering to the the same. Well, maybe the 'ambassadors' can 'advertise' on their popular native pop sites that posters who want E's new single but have trouble accessing it, can have copies sent to them, and they can collect lists of emails to send to American volunteers. This will have to be done starting real soon for it to be effective, and whether or not nonTrainer internationals come out of the woodwork can be a gauge of just how many international Efans there really are out there. And once people have the single and love it, they'll be more likely to order the whole album online instead of waiting for it to get to stores. (That can be another job for ambassadors...collect orders from people who don't want to/can't buy online, ask for payment through the mail in the local currency that includes a portion of the shipping/tax cost, and order through Amazon.)

true, totoch. they did bring constantine maroulis here. AI popularity has risen quite tremendously here in the philippines ever since jasmine trias and camile velasco made it to the top 12. and because we as a people really love music, it wasn't too much of a hard sell. so there is a distinct possibility, given enough of a demand, to bring elliott here.

as i've already pointed out, a lot of filipinos are elliott fans so there will be enough people interested to come see him sing. but i do think the ones we see online are only the tip of the iceberg. a lot more are not all that tech-savvy nor even have access to the net. but sherwood and courtie have made very good suggestions. once the single comes out, we online internationals will be sent copies by fans in the US and we must then promote the single locally. get it played on local radio stations to make fans of those who aren't yet and reach those fans who are not able to go online.

and i suppose a music video can also really help elliott's music as every country has MTV (in the philippines, we also have a local music channel) and once the video is made available, it's up to us online fans to request it via email and stuff. that ought to do the trick.

Well, the Yaminoys yahoogroup currently has around 120 members. We can build on that, I suppose :)

Wow! That's great! Congratulations! There are three of us here, very embarrassing considering it's Israel!

Hmm, did you make a Yahoo group in your own language?

well, english is sort of almost a primary language here since everybody knows how to speak it so there really was no need to do it in filipino. but i suppose having local versions of groups or sites may help in certain areas.

I left this comment on his recent blog:

Elliott, it's nice that you haven't forgotten your Israeli fans! Etrainers: Ract, Courtie, Sherwood, thank g.od for elliott!!, and Soshana, would be happy to hear this shout out!
And oh, just a note....you do have a LOT of Filipino and Japanese fans as well! Your International fans want a sort of liaison officer to help you with international marketing! Think about it.

Posted by Te><girl on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 10:59 PM

Yes, I noticed that Tex, that was sweet of you (and him).

I hope he reads it! I have to say this topic has been noted, though. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

There are probably a lot of fans who are not a member at all of the etrain. Its great that etrainstation now have 3,014 members but Elliotts friends on myspace are actually about 8,300, that doesnt even include those fans who are probably not so much into myspace but are into friendster (like most filipinos). Out of this 8,300 friends of elliott there are probably more than 3-5 fans from Israel or more than a hundred filipinos.

If only elliott and his management would support this, it would be easier for the ambassadors/representatives whatever you want to call them to organize/disseminate any information on how to spread elliotts music locally. I hope something comes out of TxRangerette's post/comment on Elliott's myspace regarding the liaison officer idea!

off topic: having elliott's myspace and his blog updates is great but somehow I still have that longing for an official website.

Majority of his Pinoy/International fans should comment him on his MySpace with this request/issue. You have definitely pointed out a good point and you should write the same thing under his comment blog! We need to have the voice of the International fans heard, so to speak!

Siba, I see you reading this thread...you can also post your comment on his MySpace
to represent the Japanese fans!

Hi Tx san!

I just read your commnet on E's myspace blog.
Thank you for making mention of Japanese E fans!

Anyway,Elliott mentioned about Japanese fans on his yesterday's blog,so we're sooooo happy!
I translated his blog into Japanese on my blog.
Don't worry,my English is not good but my bloggers who live in US-Moni san & pooch san- help me out.LOL
And today he shouts out to his Israel friends & families...
I think how sweet he is!
I love E!!

I know that management has noticed the problem. I guess whether or not anything will be done about it depends on whether resources will be invested in it. I've pointed out that Elliott is quite different from other popular performers who need PR, in that he has aready-made international following due to AI, that should be nurtured instead of insulted.


ETA: After I posted upthread about collecting emails from internations who wanted the single sent to them, I realized that with a bit of attention from Management, it wouldn't be necessary for the fans to become involved here. I recall that internationals have said that some singles are available to them through itunes, and some aren't. It's probably just a matter of extra expense and paperwork on the part of the distributor.

Hello All!

I moved this thread from the International Forum because there were so many great ideas that I hope will be read by a broader group of folks.

One other thing we could do is locate people who can translate the I-Squad "Bio" of Elliott into other languages.

That way his full story, as approved by Elliott's marketing team, would be echoed and ready for other news outlets and international bloggers to find.

I think Japanese, Spanish and Hebrew translations would be a great place to start.

Any volunteers? :grouphug:

Sk8888

SK, do you know whether that bio can be copied into commercial media for acknowledgment only?

I will see what I can find out. Can you elaborate a bit?

Sk8888