Dalai Lama's image enlightens publicity pitch
By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO - In a publicity pitch that approaches - if not tops - the
most audacious of the dot-com boom, software maker SalesForce.com is
enlisting no less than the Dalai Lama.
Tibetan spiritual leader The Dalai Lama in a June visit to Denmark.
By John McConnico, AP
On a poster with the Tibetan leader in meditative pose, it says it's
celebrating SalesForce.com's 100,000 "enlightened subscribers who have been
freed from the boundaries of software." The Dalai Lama sits below the
headline: "There is no software on the path to enlightenment."
SalesForce.com, perhaps the first successful Web services company to emerge
from the dot-com crash, bought 500 tickets to a speech the Dalai Lama is
giving in San Francisco. Afterward, it's throwing a Tibet-themed party.
Entertainment includes former Tibetan monk Robert Thurman - the father of
actress Uma Thurman - and 1980s cover band Tainted Love.
SalesForce.com sells low-profile but popular low-cost software to help
businesses automate backend systems. But its marketing is anything but
low-profile.
Arnold Schwarzenegger recently hosted a premiere of Terminator 3 for the
company, in exchange for a donation to his after-school charity.
SalesForce.com buys seats at a David Bowie benefit concert each year for
Tibetan causes. The company donates 1% of its income to charity each year.
It's unclear whether the Dalai Lama has ever used sales force automation
software. SalesForce.com CEO Marc Benioff, a longtime donor to Tibetan
charities, says he has not spoken to the Dalai Lama about the campaign. But
Benioff works closely with Tibet's government, and SalesForce.com made a
$100,000 donation to Tibetan charities in honor of the sales milestone.
Apple Computer used the Dalai Lama's image in its "Think Different" campaign
in the late '90s. His face has also popped up in political ads in Australia
and Brazilian ads for high-speed Internet access.
Benioff says the event will help garner attention as it tries to move to a
new level. SalesForce.com expects to bring in $100 million in revenue this
year - nearly double that of 2002. A Web site to collect RSVPs from
employees had to be taken down once the Web address was made public.
Such buzz can backfire, advertising executives say.
"There's an unwritten rule not to use religious stuff in advertising. You
stay away from it because it's so controversial," says David Crawford, a
creative director at GSD&M advertising in Austin.
Yet Crawford recently did advertisements for a faucet company featuring a
Hindu goddess, Adam and Eve and a priest, because religious icons can grab
attention in an increasingly crowded market. "The envelope is being pushed
every day," he says.
During the tech boom, even an event featuring the Dalai Lama might not have
attracted much notice. Lavish, celebrity-studded events took place nightly
as dot-coms tried to stand out from the loud buzz.
"They were doing anything and everything they could to get attention," says
Manuel Ramirez, co-owner of Bay City Events, a San Jose, Calif.,
party-planning firm. Now, a sales milestone will be celebrated with a party
in a hotel ballroom decorated with just balloons, Ramirez says.
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