Brand Thunder’s Euro Football Boom! secured the company’s first corporate sponsor — bwin International Ltd. Given the international appeal of Brand Thunder’s products and the fervent betting that occurs with soccer fans worldwide it was a natural integration for this division of Vienna-based bwin Interactive Entertainment AG.

Sponsorships have been a part of our vision for a long time. A custom browser Boom! serves a self-selected, targeted audience – very appealing to advertisers. Each Boom!, however, is designed to deliver an immersive experience whether its for a team, a site or a topic. Additionally, you’re dealing with the extremely high visibility and extended exposure of an open Internet browser. What is functional and acceptable within a web page is not necessarily what works within the browser. The goal is to respectfully deliver placements that honor the user experience.

Depending on the brand, sponsorships may need to be overt or integrated. No one would be surprised to see several ads on a NASCAR vehicle and a sponsor program for that Boom! may offer one series of options. A sponsor treatment for the unofficial Office Boom! may need to be more integrated and contextual in its presentation.

Despite the appropriate audience of international soccer fans, placement within the browser design would have created a visual disconnect. Instead, we worked with bwin to introduce them to the user through the download page for the Boom! and within the header of the video sidebar (pictured above). While more traditional in their style and placement, these integration points were the right ones for this client and Boom!.

The capabilities and opportunities continue to grow for creating welcome experiences from sponsors to end users and across Booms!. And, if you’re in the market for reaching a targeted audience, we would welcome hearing from you.

Congratulations to the Mozilla community on the launch of Firefox 3.5 today. It’s an outstanding product that can be found at www.getfirefox.com. If you’re using one of Brand Thunder’s newer browser Booms!, you’re most likely enjoying a seamless transition. If you’re using one of our older browser customizations or an older Boom!, you’re likely enjoying Firefox 3.5 but without the Brand Thunder customizations you want.

To those of you experiencing problems, we’re sorry and the rest of this post may seem like a series of excuses. We are working diligently to get the updates live and this is our foremost priority at this time. Once an update clears our quality assurance tests, it will push live. I’d anticipate a stream of updates occurring over the near term.

Now to move on to the excuses, most companies run very lean and we’re no exception. Many times, it feels like there’s a wave of impending doom curling but never breaking. In this instance, the wave came down on us. We had an influx of high-profile clients with fixed deadlines and a moving 3.5 delivery date. And whether there were late term changes in the 3.5 betas, or just bugs found late in our review process, we had troubleshooting to perform at a time we should have been in build.

The result is a delay in timing our updates with the release of 3.5. We regret this inconvenience.

Feel free to try our first NFL Boom! (Colts) or our latest NHL Boom! (Wild) and I’ll place a list here of all the functioning Booms! as I get them.

“Not invented here” has long held a negative connotation. I’ve been involved in my share of corporate development efforts that ignore marketplace solutions and pursue an internal one only to see the project stagger and fall. I’ve also used it as an excuse for obstacles encountered when dealing with other companies. In those respects, it’s alive and well.

When you’re a lean startup, however, you can’t afford to ignore something because it wasn’t developed from within. You’re trying to serve your clients and end users in the best way possible as fast as possible in the run toward sustainability.

Fortunately, there are many examples on the web where “not invented here” has produced beautiful results. Think of all the mashups where content and functionality from multiple sites are combined (you can find fun examples at Mashup Awards).

For the web, it’s morphed into the “I want some of what’s over there” syndrome, and that’s often all it takes to start pulling it into your product. Looking at Brand Thunder’s own efforts, we did that with Surf Canyon (who was just recognized by Search Engine Journal). We don’t view ourselves as just creating a more personal and customized browser experience; we’re trying to create a better one. Regardless of how badly we want to do something, we simply don’t have the time nor resources to do it all. And, it doesn’t make sense to reinvent a good product when it’s sitting “over there.”

When your resources are fully tapped out developing your core offering, finding something of value that was not invented here is a gift. We’ll continue to look for relationships that can help us improve our product at a rapid rate. And hopefully we won’t lock ourselves into mindsets that limit us.

We’re launching just in advance of the Thrashers Draft Party. If you can’t make the party or aren’t local to Atlanta, Thrasher fans can still enjoy the latest news and videos delivered right into the browser. The links to the team’s blog and message boards will keep you in touch with the drama of this year’s picks and trades.

You start to see why our product is finding a solid audience with sports teams and their fans. With the Internet and cable TV, sports are a year round effort – for any league. While the Pittsburgh Penguins just earned the Stanley Cup in a stellar series for the rest of the league, fans are already turning attention to next year and it’s teams like the Thrashers that are right there with the fans.

This is the type of information our prospects continually request, but our clients are inclined to protect. It’s a competitive environment and any advantage a company can find is guarded. Also, at a time when resources and revenue seem to be scarce, it’s understandably hard for prospects to take our word for performance potential.

As a result, we greatly appreciate when a client allows us to share information that provides this kind of insight. You can get it anytime via our Case Study link on the Brand Thunder homepage, or click here now. If you considering an Internet program that can drive up the connection between you and your consumer, please request yours today.

We’re thrilled that our clients, the Pittsburgh Penguins, have won the Stanley Cup. If you want to join us in celebrating, customize with your browser with the Pittsburgh Penguins browser Boom!, which you can download here. If you want to relive the highlights of the historic 7-game series, click the Media button in the Penguins Boom! or go to the Penguins TV Online here.

Way to go, Penguins!

Brand Thunder’s browser Boom! is unlike other browser-based tools with its visual immersion of the browser, in addition to integrated content and functionality. The energy and team spirit is fully captured in the entire browser theme. Links to the team site are included as is breaking news delivered within the Boom!’s toolbar and sidebar. Colts fans will enjoy instant access to team news, photo galleries and videos, plus a whole lot more.

“Each year, the Colts try to add something new that will keep us ahead in the NFL,” said Tom Zupancic, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing of the Indianapolis Colts. “This browser Boom! From Brand Thunder gives Colts fans something unique and powerful that we are excited to offer to our fans.”

“The Colts have a very progressive and active team in the area of new media and sports marketing,” said Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder. “It’s not surprising they are the first NFL team to offer a Boom! to their fans, and we’re thrilled to be working with them.”

Brand Thunder’s browser Booms! are free, lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality. Users can switch real-time between any installed Booms!, or change from a full Boom! view to a small Boom! (toolbar only), all without restarting the browser.

About Brand Thunder:
Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates custom-browser experiences. Brands enjoy a more persistent connection to their Internet consumer through the custom browser Boom!, which increases website visits and revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the look and feel of their Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site. The custom browser Booms! feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include the Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NHL, Universal Music and Yahoo!. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Yet like every other “brilliant” idea on the web, now comes the hard part of telling the world. Fortunately, we’re starting to make in roads there as well. Last week, the product got picked up by a couple nice sites:

StartupMeme, a technology blog, gave Canvas a thorough review at this link.

Examiner.com’s Internet and Technology Examiner gave it a try and posted his thoughts here.

Tech Ravings, a blog from a pretty talented 15-year old, raved about it here.

It’s good to see we’re hitting all demographics.

You can find out more at our Canvas page or at the Mozilla Add-ons site (where its also gaining a following and good reviews!).

And thanks for helping us spread the word.

Brand affinity, leveraging the bond between brand and its fan

We’ve added some great names and companies to our client list - top brands in their respective industries. Top brands are typically very attuned to the needs of their customers. Few products offer the connection to the consumer that Brand Thunder Booms! create, and these companies understand that and their fans are responding.

Personalization, let the user shape the experience they want

People love to personalize. We deliver against that desire with big name brands and also our own topical products. We’ve been creating holiday oriented Booms! since Christmas. We also launched Canvas – a product unequalled in the browser space today. We’re giving the user the ability to change their browser to whatever they want, whenever they want.

Hustle, trying to turn an idea into a business before the money runs out

There’s a lot of hard work that goes into any startup. We’re no different. We really can’t believe we hit this number already. There’s so much more that we need to get done. We’re constantly trying to improve our product, process and deliver new and exciting capabilities – you know the drill. We try to maintain the vigor needed to make a startup a viable business.

For this moment, however, we can see we’re beginning to make a difference. Each day brings its little wins, and over time they start to add up.

To our clients and users who are helping in their own way – thank you.

You’d think a team heading to the NBA Finals would have only one thing on their mind. That may be true of the players and coaches, but the front office is still thinking about the fans in this stellar 20th season for the Magic.

That’s why, starting today, you can download the latest Brand Thunder Boom! from the NBA’s Eastern Conference champions. It’s a special “NBA Finals” edition that’ll have fans saying “Go Magic!”

Seriously, this is one project that’s been GO from the beginning. It’s probably one of the fastest turnarounds we’ve seen from agreement to design, build and launch. Motivation can do that for you. But it’s only part of the equation. For those in the development field, you know it’s also about clear definition and deadlines met by anyone who plays a role. That’s not always easy.

Neither is playing in the NBA Finals. Two motivated teams reached the Finals, but now it’s about offense, defense and simply whether or not shots are going to fall. Or, it could just take a little Magic.