On Sunday 09 September 2007 02:06, Louis Suarez-Potts wrote:
> Hi
> On 2007-09-07, at 09:02 , Graham wrote:
>
>
>
> snip
>
> >> There is no clear mechanism for things like this. For the present
> >> campaign, we have to spend the money on merchandise, like USB keys,
> >> and, mostly, online ads; print things, like brochures, are not quite
> >> in the picture.  That said, making these available for modification
> >> and distribution is a necessary step.  I'd be interested to know the
> >> cost, however, as if not for this particular campaign, it will help
> >> in future ones. I'd also be curious if we could run online ads that
> >> do the same.
> >
> > Oh darn!  I didn't realise that we were being told how we could use
> > it.
> >
> > If it HAS to be spent on merchandising gear then I can organise
> > that very
> > easily through the people who do my ooogear stuff.
>
> Actually, the priority and bulk must be spent on online ads, then
> merchandise. So 4/5 ths on online ads, and at most 1/5 on
> merchandise, and we are targeting USB keys first.

According to Florian's first mail he said online AND offline.  So we're back 
to just online ads now.

It seems we were caught out a bit by SUN's generosity.  For instance Aug 31 is  
the end of  my financial year so I wasn't able to participate in the initial 
stages of the discussion.  I think that probably holds true for a number of 
other people who have things outside the project that demand their attention 
and so can't contribute immediately.  This is something that those who are 
gathering a salary from their OOo / Sun activities need to take into account.  
Many of us would absolutely love to be able focus 100% of our energies on 
OOo, but for  obvious reasons that's not always possible.

A couple of suggestions for next time: 
More time please, the longer the better, but at least four weeks, six would be 
better.

Have an RFP (Request for Proposals) process, Instead of having a mish mash of 
ideas coming from all directions.  Then, instead of having to make decisions 
on a whole raft of disconnected ideas there is only a need to make a decision 
from amongst a group of proposals.  World wide campaigns are expensive, we 
don't have the money to do that.  Well thought out and constructed regional 
campaigns are going to give better results for the money.  

Decide how the decision will be reached and who is going to make that 
decision.  In fact we need to make that decision now.  
Should it be by:
Community vote
Sun Management
CC decision
Marketing Project members Vote
Marketing leads Decision

At this point we don't even know any of the above.  It hasn't been outlined. 
Obviously there are a number of mechanisms in this process that need to be 
defined
 

>
> > For a worldwide campaign
> > tho' it would be a rather expensive way of getting to people and
> > definitely
> > limits the numbers that you can interface with.
>
> I think the real merit is also to initiate programs that we can later
> efficiently exploit.

First then we need to define _how_ we're going to exploit this later.  We 
can't be expected to go after a moving target.  

What are these programmes and how can we efficiently exploit them later.  
That's the question.  80% online ads 20%  merchandise isn't a plan

Without a plan with a distinct objective then we are better to say to SUN 
"Save your money for later and we'll come up with something really good 
instead of something thrown together at the last moment."

I would rather that we come up with definite plans to pitch, with concrete 
goals , budgets and campaign strategies  as well as a benchmarks to measure 
the effectiveness of said campaign. 

>
> > CDs are reasonably cheap but even then we're probably looking at
> > around US40c
> > ea for 20,000 including pressing, printing and freight.  Assuming
> > local
> > packaging of course.  Getting them packaged in a sleeve at source
> > considerably increases freight costs. It's better local in any case
> > because
> > they can then be printed with more relevant local info.
>
> Yes. That's always been my impression. Also, a cdrom is ephemeral.

So is a usb drive.  It will end up at the botom of a drawer because the 
software on it will get superceded and the drive will be too small very 
quickly  but  admittedly possibly not as fast as a cdrom.  I'm waiting for 
the day when we'll be able to embed OOo onto a credit card sized usb readable 
device.  Not that far away!

>
> > USB drives are a different kettle of fish.  You might be able to
> > find some
> > supplier who happens to have a warehouse full of old obselete 128
> > mb drives
> > that he'd be wiling to part with for $3 or $4 per unit for >1000,
> > but that
> > would be without printing and artwork, but you're probably looking
> > at around
> > the $10 mark for printed 256mb drives.  I could track a definite
> > price down
> > if I had an idea of what sort of budget we're looking at.
>
> Florian is on this. See also the wiki that's been created and his
> posts on this subject.

Not a lot there yet.  I'll do something monday my time.  I have a history with 
the companies that produce this sort of stuff so they'll give me a quote 
within an hour.

(As an aside can I make a general request that when pages are added to the 
marketing wiki please make sure the new page is listed in the Marketing wiki 
index.  I've edited this one, but in the future please, then we only have to 
direct people to the  Marketing wiki and they can then navigate from there.) 

>
> > As far as T-Shirts are concerned, there is a local guy who has a
> > machine that
> > will produce 600 t-shirts an hour with a two colour print. I'll
> > check to see
> > what he charges.
>
> Great! Again, for local things, like t-shirts, cdroms, etc., it's
> important to have models available and contacts too, so that we can
> get these out to meritorious events, give them as gifts, say, or even
> make them available for purchase (yes, you read that right) from OOo
> or a designated site. 

Heh, Not surprisingly you'll get no argument from me  on that one!   :) 
I'd like to see every MarCon in the world running an ooogear.co.xx site in 
their local area.

As to T-shirts, I haven't pushed them in our local market because you really 
need to have a specific target audience to get the numbers that warrant 
spending the cash.  T-shirts are a giveaway item and I don't have the cash to 
spend on such a bulk order.  I do however have contacts in India who can do 
the bulk stuff cheaper than locally but orders have to be >2000 odd to make 
it worthwhile for freight.

On ooogear I stick to embroidered gear  and pens because my contacts are more 
SMEs than any other  For the University Campaign I was planning, screen 
printed t-shirts would be much more appropriate.  That was the Google:OOo 
campaign idea that met with a deafening silence back in Feb.  :)  

(NB: Both John and Bernhard have my Polo Shirts that they were supposed to 
have before last conference but they got stuck in German Customs. Heh! and I 
outfitted the others in the OOo team at LCA 07, Jon Coombes and Jim Watson.  
Heh not bad since I had to guess their sizes before I left NZ)

>For instance, someone downloads OOo and sees
> not only where to get updates, extensions, ancillary apps, support,
> but also lots of fun and totally tangible things.

+1 in spades, plus local contacts. It is most important in the SME/SOHO space 
for people to be able to pick up the phone and speak to someone.

>
> best
> louis
>

Cheers
GL

-- 
"GET LEGAL - GET OPENOFFICE.ORG"
http://why.openoffice.org
ISO 26300 compliant

Graham Lauder,
OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

INGOTs Assessor Trainer
Moderator New Zealand
(International Grades in Office Technologies)
www.theingots.org.nz

GET DRESSED GET OOOGEAR
http://ooogear.co.nz

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