Hi!
Leo and I had a few mails off-list, and some assumptions came about
that I didn't make clear enough...
Leo Lapworth said:
On 31 January 2010 20:48, Salve J Nilsen <[email protected]> wrote:
Here's the card front I just made:
http://www.pvv.org/~sjn/FOSDEM-Perl-promo-card-front-1.0.png
(Note the purposeful use of low-res graphics, the Comic Sans font,
and pointless italics. :)
Nice idea, is there anyway to make it more positive?
[snip]
Leading with a negative, is... well negative, even if it's funny
when (/if?) you look at the other side?
The cards are made for *giving* to people (not just keep lying around
for people to pick up by themselves.) When giving the card, you're in
fact introducing yourself as a member of the Perl community (hence the
size/format of the card and the big logo) at the same time as you give
them a self-deprecating (put-down type) joke.
When giving any card to someone in person it's almost automatic for
people to read the text on the card, especially if they can see at
first glance that there's something vaguely relevant for them there
(that's why I made the front side with "Perl" and the onion logo as
big as sensibly possible.) At second glance - should they find the
logo/text relevant to them - they see the bottom text, and are
rewarded with something amusing.
The point is to _give_ people something amusing/memorable that they
want to _keep_. Something they can bring home and tell their friends
about: "Look what the crazy Perl people were giving out at the
conference! I brought a few extra."
Yes, you could put any joke on the card, positive or otherwise, but in
the end it doesn't matter much. I chose the self-deprecating one
becaue 1) it's true - but we do something about it, and 2) it's false
- since we're standing in front of him giving obvious (but funny)
marketing material.
It's this paradox I'm aiming for here, and which makes the whole thing
more surreal/funny. What kind of marketing people introduce themselves
as sucking at marketing?
(At this point, imagine what we have in common with the FOSDEM
crowd... Are we the only ones that suck at marketing there? No. But we
make something amusing out of it.)
"We're not doing marketing, we're just raising awareness!"
Yes. We are. And we're cheating at it by making something funny. :)
- Salve
--
#!/usr/bin/perl
sub AUTOLOAD{$AUTOLOAD=~/.*::(\d+)/;seek(DATA,$1,0);print# Salve Joshua Nilsen
getc DATA}$"="'};&{'";@_=unpack("C*",unpack("u*",':4@,$'.# <[email protected]>
'2!--"5-(50P%$PL,!0X354UC-PP%/0\`'."\n"));eval "&{'@_'}"; __END__ is near! :)
