I still remember it like it was yesterday.
The filming had taken place months before and we'd seen the slow evolution of the finished product over the months. We'd seen ever better previews of the two minutes that would introduce Myachi to the world. We'd watched it all in slow-mo, in reverse, we'd analyzed it frame by frame, we'd memorized every word and every shot. The only thing left to do was to see it on television.
We were doing a small test run then. We'd shot the commercial in conjunction with the instructional video we were making so we managed to do it with a pretty small initial investment. Running the ad would cost a lot more so we only bought a few scattered air times in an effort to judge the commercial and its effectiveness.
The first airing was scheduled to take place on MTV2 during a repeat of "Cribs". Kid Myach and I were sharing a place in Manhattan at the time but we had an all but microscopic television there. Sure, it was good enough to watch the Superbowl on, but the premiere of Myachi's first commercial? It deserved something grandiose.
Luckily for us, Myachi Man's folks lived in town and had a monstrous television. It was big enough to have its own gravitational field so it was just big enough for our big moment.
Myachi Man met Kid and I downtown and because MM loves to live his life in a constant state of suspense, we were running a bit late. I can't recall exactly what time it aired, but I know it was evening because I distinctly recall trying to make it uptown in rush hour. The traffic was too heavy to take a cab and make it on time so we rushed to the nearest subway stop.
Now, contrary to popular belief, there aren't crazy people on every train in the NYC subway system. It's always that way in movies, but in reality you only occasionally run into rampaging lunatics when you take the train. This was, of course, one of those occasions.
There was this dude sitting on one bench and sliding back and forth to make sure nobody else could sit down next to him. He was babbling about everyone being an agent of the devil or something. Normally I keep my distance when I'm around unstable people, but on the subway at rush hour there's no such thing as "my distance" so instead I'm hovering over this dude and savoring every whiff.
By the time we reach our stop we're literally sprinting toward the stairs. We hustle from the subway stop to Myachi Man's parents building. He calls them to tell them we're close so they can warn the doormen so when we reach the door they're just laughing and waving.
"Congratulations!" the doormen yell as we run through into the lobby. "Good luck!"
I'm watching seconds tick down on my phone as the elevator slowly creeps toward the seventh floor. We're less than a minute from the airing by the time we finally reach the floor. Myachi Man's dad is standing in the hallway waving us in like the dude with the orange cones that guides the airplanes into the terminal.
We burst in all out of breath and glance up at the TV. A commercial for KFC is just about to end.
"Catch it! Kick it! Flip it! And Stick it!"
We burst into cheers, we break out the champagne, we pat each other on the back. The commercial airs before us just as it had a thousand times already, but now it's actually being broadcast all over the country.
Kid's phone rings. Before he can answer it my phone rings. About the time I glance down and see that it's my sister, Myachi Man's phone rings. While he's answering that his parent's phone rings. While they're answering that Kid's call waiting beeps.
For a solid 10 mintues we were all just standing in the room taking phone calls from all of our friends that had just seen us in the commercial. We're all smiles and glows and by the time we're done we realize that we're still watching "Cribs".
It was a huge moment for us. It's the kind of thing that remains in your brain like a photograph.
Now, as many of you know, this was not as big a moment as we hoped it would be. We had trouble financing large ad buys for the commercial and ultimately we used it more for regional buys when Myachi would start getting big in particular parts of the country. We played it here and there, but we never got the huge national launch out of it that we hoped for.
There were a lot of reasons but most of them boiled down to "we weren't ready yet". Our manufacturing, our warehousing, our fulfillment centers, our PR campaign, our staff and our headquarters were too small to support a genuine nation wide push. We still got a pretty sick commercial and instructional video out of the deal so we more than got our money's worth out of filming the thing, but we also didn't become a household name.
-----
Now we fast forward to today. We're days away from a similar but much bigger event in Myachi's short history. Our next commercial is tenatively set to air next week and is already viewable on the homepage of http://www.myachi.com/ so we're ramping up for the same thing again. It's one of those days you walk into knowing that it will stay with you forever.
Things are better now than they were then. We go into this with a lot more backing, a much bigger staff, a much bigger warehouse, a genuine HQ and some of the world's best marketeers in our corner. It feels today like that airdate years ago was a dress rehearsal for what is to come.
Oh, there's another thing we have that makes us more prepared than last time as well. The House of Skills has a really big TV.
