Incredible test case on what a person can do to make a difference in the open source and free software world. Ben created a New York City advertising campaing thanks to the net on a similar fashion to firefox but as opposed to firefox this was just a 1 man campaing.
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1.
Case Study: OpenOffice.org Guerrilla Advertising in the New
YorkMetroNewspaper
2. Goal of this Talk
Describe my project and encourage others to undertake similar
local efforts
3. Why FOSS Needs OOo
OpenOffice.org is one of the most strategic FOSS apps right
now, especially due to ODF and cross-platform support, that can
bring to document creation what Firefox brought to the web in the
past few years.
4. OOo's Broader Impact
When OOo reaches critical mass, which is clearly starting
already, we'll cancel Microsoft's ability to collect 80% profit
margins on MS Office. This will cut off their air supply (or half
of it, anyway), preventing the company from funding activities like
their recent putsch to corrupt the ISO.
5. 2004 New York Times Firefox Ad
http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-12-15.html 6. How Much
Could I Do?
Small team (me)
Working fulltime
Short timeframe (about 10 weeks)
Minimal budget
7. WhyMetro ?
Metroresponded.
Each weekday, 330,000 free copies of Metro are distributed to
commuters in the five boroughs.
Roughly 450,000 people read it, and they represent a young,
affluent and savvy demographic.
8. Nonprofit Ad Rates
Contacted Metro May 31, 2006 and received a reply on June
2.
Nonprofit ad rates = heavy discount.
Less than 20% of regular cost, or about $4,750 for a full
back-page ad
(high traffic, more than SolidOffice blog could have
supported)
18. Google Groups 19. 20. SolidOffice.com 21. Ad Design - First
Draft
You may have seen it on Slashdot.
Not intended as a serious design, just a talking point,
but...
it was ugly!
22. Final Ad Design 23. Hasan from Open Malaysia blog spots the
ad at the Staten Island Ferry terminal
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2006/08/still_in_new_yo.html 24.
Lessons Learned
1. Flexible planning is key.
2. One person can do a lot.
3. Funds can be collected effectively online.
4. Ignore the critics.
5. Can't do it too oftenneed to sleep!
25. Measuring Impact
Of all the pieces of this project, this one stymied me.
Marketers look for quantitative results, butI cannot provide
them for this project.
26. Next Steps
Ideas:
Facebook Group
University newspapers: important audience, low cost
Share your ideas: small marketing pieces, loosely joined