It was a little over 2 years
ago that we conceived the idea to become the worlds first
corporately sponsored college students.
We came up with the idea, created this website,
and launched it into the media and were met with overwhelming
success. We were interviewed by media worldwide and began
receiving emails from hundreds of high school kids each month.
Within 8 months we had been in contact with over 20 nationally
known companies. We were invited to their headquarters and
met with their marketing departments. It was amazing to see
the how large corporations are run. It was a fun and a great
learning experience for us.
We chose First USA as our sponsor. Unlike
many of the companies, they did not want us to just sell products.
Instead, they had a theme of financial empowerment, responsibility
and money management. They helped us shape the message we
wanted to communicate to the college market.
We made our sponsorship announcement on The
Today Show, June 18, 2001 and followed it with a 20 city satellite
media tour. The reaction was amazing. Within 48 hours of our
sponsorship announcement we had over 80 million media impressions.
We garnered over 8 million dollars worth of publicity with
First USA and got out the strong messages we wanted to reach
out to our peers.
We had a very busy and fun summer. it was
non-stop media from the New York Times to the Los Angeles
Times, CNN to MSNBC. Forbes Magazine to Money Magazine and
dozens of radio interviews in every major market throughout
the USA, Canada and Europe.
Both of us were accepted at our dream schools.
Chris choose to go to Pepperdine University and Luke choose
University of Southern California. CNN and the Associated
Press followed us around campus the first day of school. First
USA understood that our education came first so we finally
got a little bit of a break!
Living in California has been the most amazing
times of our lives. We have met so many interesting people,
gone to concerts, got a great tan surfing on the beaches of
Malibu, as well as getting a great education.
We were in Hoobastank's music video for one
of the top songs last year "Crawling in the Dark."
Luke was one of the main actors in this video and if you look
closely you can see Chris pop up a bunch of times as well.
We
helped to launch Teens4aCure for the benefit of the National
Children's Leukemia Foundation (NCLF). The immediate mission of
Teens4aCure is to raise $17 million dollars to establish the
first of many recovery centers for young people 
and
their families after bone marrow transplants. Chris and Luke
had the unique opportunity to connect with notable members
of the entertainment community to enhance their fund raising
efforts on behalf of NCLF. We went backstage at the Teen Choice
Awards to meet and talk to every celebrity about Teens4aCure.
Many are interested in helping out. We got to talk to Carmen
Electra, Seth Green, Tom Green, Pamela Anderson, Frankie Muiniz,
Ben Stiller, and many more. We had all of them sign a t-shirt
and it auctioned off online for our Charity over $500.
After our Freshman year, we took acting classes
over the summer with some of the top casting directors and
teaches in the New York area. We had headshots taken and many
casting agents around the country have them. We have been
busy going to casting calls and auditions.
We began shooting a pilot for the new Teen
TV show with its working name "Teen Edge." Our segment
was to be behind the scenes of anything and everything. We
shot segments on how a concert is set up and to how to make
sushi. It was a lot of fun and we look forward to the show
going into production.
We are also working on a book deal. The book
will chronicle our online college experience so far. It will be a
guide for students to them get into and get through college.
Along the same lines we are also in talks with a national
press syndicate to write a recurring column that will appear
in newspapers throughout the country.
This fall we started Lootz.com. Lootz.com
is a marketing company that puts all of our talents together
to be used in one company. We are creating a database of over
100,000 young people in the 13 - 26 year old market. Our members
will test out new products, listen to new music, and just
be part of one of the best online communities on the Internet.
When a company wants to launch a new product focused on this
demographic they can go through Lootz.com for immediate grass
roots impact and feedback.
Now is
it January, 2003. We are ready for the next big launch of
ChrisAndLuke.com.
Thanks
to everyone who has helped and supported us. Without you it
would not have been possible!
Chris
Barrett & Luke McCabe
