Broadcasting and FaceBook - Simon and Simone Pig Farm

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him

Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects

It seems that Simone Clarke-Cooper, or “Tiger Bone Simone” as she is called by my friends at the Bee Hive, the hot and happening trendy Internet Café on the Baxter Building at the back of Bargain Village Plaza in May Pen, Clarendon where I live, has become delightfully fat with child, literally exploding (very bad pun!) before our eyes on the Television scene, usually reserved for the beautiful people.

Mind you, I am not really sure that she is pregnant, as my claim is based on anecdotal information provided by Simon Crosskill as per the show Smile Jamaica, aired Tuesday July 20^th 2010 on Television Jamaica, thus protecting myself from legal action habeus Corpus Christi and whatnot. Rather, it appears that she may well be a bonafide genius.

I say “genius” as on several recent episodes the ravishing svelte plus forty (40) femme fetal on the highly rated Television Jamaica morning show Smile Jamaica (sorry CVM at Sunrise, only Beaver can climb my coconut tree!!) has been of the opinion that Simon Crosskill should borrow some money from the bank and start that Pig Farm that he has always been talking about since the Devil was a Boy, seeing as how the JDX (Jamaica Debt Exchange) now a success.

It is not only resulting in interest rates taking a further tumble on the say-so of the Governor of the Bank Jamaica, Mr. Bran Wynter as stated in the article “BOJ lowers interest rates again”, published Wednesday, August 04, 2010, The Jamaica Observer but also in increased competition in the lending sector.  

Recently, it forced one of the Big Three (3) Banks, namely NCB (National Commercial Bank) to lower their base lending rates by three (3) percentage points from 20.75% to 17.75% as stated on Prime Time News, aired Thursday July 25^th 2010, Television Jamaica and confirmed in the article “NCB cuts as loan portfolio decline”, published Sunday July 25^th 2010, Business Section, The Jamaica Gleaner.

John Public surmises this, since she has become heavy laden, possibly the nutritional value of her food purchases and thus her genius has been turned up a notch, Dragon Ball Z style, inclusive of an exercise regiment, as it is a well known fact that she does have a Nintendo Wii at home, though I have never happened to bump into her online while I am in the Wii Sports Resort at the Bee Hive, a video game version of Second Life.

Good also here to note that John Public of late, has been playing emulated versions of the aforementioned video games on my PC, with a Windows Compliant Nintendo Wii Wand controller.

Eventually, Microsoft, which has debut the Microsoft Kinect for US$100 at E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) earlier this year, may do well to consider porting this accessory to PC’s as well, as it has applications that may “jazz up” the sales and adoption of Windows 7 and Office 2010, both experiencing lackluster sales due to a lack of anything new coupled with their products.

So she is a genius, like John Public, which comes as no surprise, as geniuses do not necessarily act intelligent, as we geniuses are Knowledge Inside, like the Intel commercial, which as chance would have it, is pushing its LightPeak fiber optic standard as stated in the article “Intel's Light Peak: One PC cable to rule them all”, published September 23, 2009 12:54 PM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech.

The confederacy of dunces at her station workplace FAME 95 FM is indeed evident on her music programme.

Her offer of assistance to Simon Crosskill to help him build his Pig Farm has now even been extended to even partnering with him, more sign of her hidden genius as pork is currently the fastest selling meat in Jamaica.

Despite Seventh Day Adventist and their anti-pork brigade, like the Salem Witch Trials, sniffing about with their rumor congeners to find out if you have eaten pork………when you just saw them down the road.

Simon and Simone (sounds like the title of a show, does it not?) also engage in games and are now such good friends that they drink from each other’s cups, also marked “Simon” and “Simone”.

I guess what in my cup is in your cup, as per the Ritchie Loops song “My Cupp”. Their FaceBook page is also a delight and usually my sanguine commentary on all things technological is posted on this page, as my strict rule when online is not to make friends with people outside of Clarendon or Glenmuir High, as friends outside of Clarendon, John Public does not keep.

However, with the advent of FaceBook Games, it appears that Smile Jamaica can capitalize on this desire by Simon Crosskill and Simone Clarke-Cooper’s offer of assistance, by simply creating a game on FaceBook, called……….and this should be obvious……….Simon and Simone’s Pig Farm!

The game can be easily designed by the Developer Team from Panmedia, who recently designed the now popular Digicel BlackBerry Bonanza, a FLASH-based FaceBook game on Digicel’s FaceBook page that is all the rage with the online community as stated in the article “Digicel Launches Panmedia Designed Game”, published Monday, 07 June 2010 by TechJamaica.com.

Television Jamaica, the Television station arm for the RJR Communication Group, could use this genius brainstorm by Simone Clarke-Cooper as a branding opportunity for the Smile Jamaica show and its captivating silliness, to promote the show even when Smile Jamaica program has ended each morning.

By engaging its “like-ees” or followers in a game that get them to raise piglets sows and boers on an interactive Pig Farm, with guest celebrity appearance by Simon Crosskill and Simone Clarke-Cooper as Pig Farm Manager and Pig Farm Second Lieutenant respectively.

Neville Bell and the ever sugar-induced Carlette Deleon aka the Pet Tales Chick aka “Dilly” of Television Jamaica (ta-daa!!) can double in cameo appearance as Pig Commander and Pig Captain respectively, another playful feature of this game: everybody’s job title starts with the word “Pig”.

The game is basically Simone Clarke-Cooper’s suggestion brought to life, and can be seen as a knock-off of Farmville, but with a twist, as the players of the game are on one large interactive farm and not separate adjoining farms as is the case in another popular game Diner Dash.

The aim is simple: keep the pigs happy, raise more piglets by selectively breeding sows and boers and do odd jobs around the farm to expand the size of the farm in a co-operative community effort.

The environment is an interactive one, with Simon and Simone’s avatars dropping every now and then to chat and give words of encouragement, effectively allowing fans of the hosts to meet and greet the Television personalities in real-time and talk to them in real-time either via an integrated pop-up balloon IM (Instant Messenger) chat integrated into the game or with optional VoIP chat service. But here is the clincher. In the game, there will be game elements with advertising branding affixed to them.

To gain points, you have to click on as many of the game elements with advertising logos affixed as you can, which can include pigs. Each time you click on an advert, it is registered as an advertising hit, and each hit is counted as a targeted delivery of the advertisement.

This is effectively a form of Behavioral Targeted Advertising as stated in the article “Study: Like it or not, behavioral ad targeting works”, published March 24, 2010 9:01 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News – The Social for which the Television Jamaica would earn the game player 100 points and pay out JA$100 to the player or a 10% of the cost of each advertisement based on click metrics.

In addition, players in the game can earn additional money via doing Marketing Surveys for the respective advertiser and their products, also garnering JA$100. At the end of a thirty (30) day cycle, the game players are paid their winning portion of the advertising money, but payouts are controlled so that the total payout does not exceed 10% of the advertising revenue for each advertisement, based on click metrics.

Special offers could be added into the game so that persons can win goodie bags of prizes, ranging from mobile phones credit to baskets of goodies, all as prizes for making Simon Crosskill and Simone Clarke-Cooper happy by being good pig farmers, working as a team on tasks and supporting the advertisers.

You can even get to kill and eat some of your produce online and sell some to fellow competitors or Pig Rearers to gain more money, each sale costing JA$100.Thats right! Actual money, a first for any online game anywhere……….and no credit card needed, as the purchase cost is deducted from the money you earn virtually by clicking on ads and doing surveys.

Albeit the pigs in Simon and Simone’s Pig Farm are virtual and are not real, the money for the game players in this FaceBook game is very real, and is definitely a surefire way of getting people to not only visit and join the FaceBook page, but also watch the Smile Jamaica show in the morning for special giveaways on the FaceBook page, a win-win situation for Television Jamaica and advertisers.

It would also be a spur for more Developers to follow the Developer Team from Panmedia into this lucrative arena of application design and game design and an incentive for more advertisers to advertise on Smile Jamaica.

It would also increase branding placement advertisements in Simon and Simone’s Pig Farm, as getting people to register and do formal Marketing Surveys is usually an expensive affair that this game would virtualize and make paperless, not to mention a game that reflects the true genius of Simone Clarke-Cooper, Knowledge Inside.

But wait……….if you had a barcode scanner on your computer, or even better you could use your optical mouse coupled with the correct software to submit products as requested by the game or even purchase items advertised in the game……or even an Intergalactic Pig Rescue Mission……but that is grist for the mill, another article, another time.