On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:58 AM, Sean DALY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Effective marketing is targeted. Last year's typical G1G1 donor was > probably a generous IT type with a positive viewpoint concerning Free > software, curious about Sugar and perhaps even willing to be an > ambassador of the OLPC project. This market doesn't need a marketing > message; they are ready to donate and merely eager for practical > information (cost, available by Christmas or not, available outside > the USA, if so with localized keyboards or not, at same price or not, > ...). All that market needs is a press release today answering those > questions, and a press conference on November 17th, both of which > would probably get very complete media coverage. A three-minute film > demonstrating the laptop, showing OLPC people working on it, > mentioning and showing places around the world it is in use, > enumerating challenges, and finally asking for a donation in time for > the holidays, could be posted to YouTube during the press conference > (and an MPEG-2 broadcast version offered to the media for download). > Even a homey home video would be fine, perhaps even preferable. > Imagine G1G1 donors posting video responses.... The challenge this > time is fulfillment, but that seems well in hand with the Amazon > partnership. The most effective merchandising could be what Apple has > done for decades: a few decals/stickers slipped in the box before > shipment -- easily designed and printed with negligeable > picking/packing and shipment cost.
+1 This just came to me while sitting in traffic - a stylized bumper sticker: "My other XO is in Mongolia" (or Rwanda, Haiti, etc. Randomize the stickers or give them a few to choose from:-)) We have a lot of creativity on these lists. Let it rip! > Massive buzz could be generated by > another technique Apple has used for years: the education discount. > Offer the pair at $375 for educators and university students, and $425 > for others. Imagine thousands of educators holding an XO in their > hands, the community feedback potential. This brings the overhead of verifying whose an educator etc. Apple already has this in place. How do we handle it? > Seen from the outside, the far more important target market that may > need work is governments and education ministers. That group doesn't > need merchandising, they need reassurance that they will be > accompanied, that risks can be foreseen and contained, that there is > indeed a correlation between learning via an interface optimized for > children and later aptitude with office productivity software. IT > vendors invest fortunes in such "decision-maker" marketing, and > perhaps the best approach there is to find a small (or not), talented > ad agency willing to work pro bono for the exposure, experience, and > good citizen credentials. > > I would venture that the less said about the XO-2 at this time, the > better. I believe the priority should be to combat the perception that > OLPC has fallen short and discussing the future version might merely > confuse everyone, in particular leading to speculation that something > is not right with the XO-1. What G1G1 can do is remind everyone that > hundreds of thousands of OLPC XO-1s have shipped and are shipping, and > are serving children from Birmingham to Kigali. > +1 The shipment numbers are impressive, and must be highlighted as much as possible. Everyone I've spoken to at first thinks of this as a faltered project, but then they hear the numbers and their eyes light up. Numbers assure that the project is alive and kicking. Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Information Systems San Francisco State University San Francisco CA 94132 USA http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ > I am not sure I can offer any useful assistance, but I do have > expertise in transcoding video formats, it seems there was a DVD > produced last year which may just need to be transcoded to web > formats? > > Sean. > > > > > > On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 1:09 AM, Sameer Verma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 3:42 PM, Edward Cherlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> Update: Some of the computer press has picked up the story. >>> >>> But we could be all over the Mainstream Media, including having >>> Nicholas, Walter, Alan and others on all the talk shows. If they are >>> willing. Are any of you? This is the one time of year when ordering >>> something you can't get is a positive. We should aim for something >>> ridiculous, like a million units. (Although we shouldn't say that to >>> the media in so many words.) And then we should provide daily tracking >>> of order numbers and of production lead times, to encourage yet more >>> people to order as early as possible. >>> >>> We should be playing up the connection with the 40th anniversary of >>> the Dynabook idea, and of Doug Engelbart's Mother of All Demos. I have >>> been in contact with him and his people, and I know that they are keen >>> on that. We should be doing T-shirts, mugs, stickers, replica mice, >>> and all the rest of the merchandising, and getting several books >>> published. Why anybody at OLPC would want to waste the best marketing >>> time in the year is utterly beyond me. >>> >>> If you don't think my opinion counts, ask Amazon. >>> >> >> I agree with Ed Cherlin in that if G1G1v2 begins in 5 weeks, now is >> the time to get the campaign going. Five weeks isn't a lot of time. >> What I'd look for in the efforts this year is something a bit more >> orchestrated. Materials (posters, cards, stickers, shirts, etc) all >> coming across with a consistency in branding, image, look-n-feel, etc. >> If we do merchandise from somebody like Cafepress, we don't have to >> get into the business of printing, cutting etc. >> >> I cannot setup shop at Cafepress because the logos involved aren't my >> copyright, but if someone from OLPC initiates, I'd be glad to help. >> >> Sameer >> -- >> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. >> Associate Professor of Information Systems >> San Francisco State University >> San Francisco CA 94132 USA >> http://verma.sfsu.edu/ >> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ >> >> >>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 4:50 PM, Edward Cherlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>> This is the first time I have heard that G1G1 will start up again on >>>> Nov 17. As far as I can tell, nobody in the outside world has picked >>>> up on this yet. >>>> >>>> Is this a leak? Is it true? Has there been any outside announcement? >>>> Since it doesn't show up in Internet news searches, I am certain that >>>> there was no press release. Should I Slashdot this? >>>> >>>> This is a Hell of a way to run a global non-profit. We have one of the >>>> world's biggest brands, and we do nothing with it. We could be The >>>> Must-Have Gift for this Holiday season without any advertising >>>> expense, if we would just let the media have the story. Even with the >>>> manufacturing delays that we can predict. That's one of the draws for >>>> the Must-Have Gift of the year. Cabbage Patch died the moment you >>>> could get one off the shelf. >>>> >>>> There is a great deal more I could say about this and other management >>>> issues, but this is not the place for it. If you want to hear any of >>>> it, you know where to find me. >>>> >>>> But!! I have a better idea. Who wants to fork the PR program, and help >>>> write an Open Source press release? We'll have to reverse engineer >>>> most of the content, but I have confidence in our community's >>>> abilities. >>>> >>>> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Jim Gettys <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>>> Community News >>>>> A weekly update of One Laptop per Child September 29, 2008 >>>> >>>>> Our appearance outside the Marriott attracted a lot of people to out >>>>> tables; some of them were as far as from Finland; many of them knew >>>>> about "those laptops for children" and were asking about the ways to >>>>> acquire the laptops (we even got questions: are you selling the >>>>> machines?). So, in addition to conducting our scheduled testing, we also >>>>> served as "unofficial" OLPC marketing representatives, steering people >>>> >>>>> to the Nov 17 opening of the G1G1 event through amazon.com. The time we >>>> >>>>> were outside wasn't even the peak lunch time for people to fill that >>>>> square; just imagine the level of attention, if we were there at the >>>>> lunch time! >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Don't panic.--HHGTTG, Douglas Adams >>>> fivethirtyeight.com, 3bluedudes.com Obama still moving ahead in EC! >>>> http://www.obamapedia.org/ Join us! >>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai For the children >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Don't panic.--HHGTTG, Douglas Adams >>> fivethirtyeight.com, 3bluedudes.com Obama still moving ahead in EC! >>> http://www.obamapedia.org/ Join us! >>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai For the children >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Olpc-open mailing list >>> Olpc-open@lists.laptop.org >>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >> _______________________________________________ Olpc-open mailing list Olpc-open@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open