Re: Marketing, GNOME 3.0 and subteams

[Claus Schwarm <clschwarm googlemail com>]

Paul, 

I'm glad you like it.  :-)

But I have to disagree in one point: After about four years on this list, I do not think, teams will work. I'd prefer to have managers (or maintainers if you like): people that have the balls to commit, deal with stuff, make decisions, and have fun while doing so.

Thus, I'd suggest the following: The board should decide who's going to manage the whole thing, a single person who's making the decisions. Looks like you already applied for the job. ;-) I just warn you that it'll be much work.

I also suggest to keep the following organization of the campaign confidential and private (I believe the wiki is able to have privat pages for certain user groups.) Let's keep everyone out who's not committed to invest time and energy into it. Let's just get things done.

For the creative part, I suggest we simply make something like a pitch. Everyone who believes to have the GREATEST idea for the GNOME3 campaign EVER should make a presentation of the idea. (Of course, the above idea is MINE so hopefully nobody dares to copy it.)

Presentations will be sent to the board so they can choose which one they want if any. They are not allowed to make rejected presentations public. They are not allowed to mix elements from different presentations without consent. (After all, they are copyrighted.) They should also decide about the amount of money we're allowed to spend (Maybe presentations should have a sort of expense plan, too).

So, effectively, the manager gets a "creative director" for the creative part.

We use the next meeting of the GNOME board as a deadline. If there's no meeting planned, let's make the deadline in two or three weeks. 

If the board won't commit, I see no reason why I should. My time is valuable to me.

If Stormy and board members are OK with that, it's probably useful to make a separate announcement on this list (and maybe even elsewhere). This thread got so crowded, it's hard to keep overview.

The winning presentation will be sent to the marketing list so people can pick tasks, join the team, or add tasks if they are committed to manage them. It's probably also useful to sent an announcement about the winning presentation to developers (and maybe the public) so they can join in for technical tasks.

That would be my suggestion. Reactions? Comments?

Best Regards,
Claus

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org> wrote:

Claus - I love the ideas, and had thought of something similar.

What I'd like to propose, similar to Stormy's idea at the beginning of
the thread, is to form some sub-teams around these ideas.  I'd like to
take some of these ideas and put them into buckets, and brainstorm
around those, maybe one a week.  Some of the different things to think
about that we could probably do a deeper dive into:

* Audience - (To whom are we marketing GNOME 3.0?  Developers, Users,
Downstream distros, Press)

* What is the message by audience?  (This is key, as touched on
earlier in the thread)

* What marketing vehicles / campaign elements should we develop for
these audiences based on the messages developed?  (Role of the web vs.
conferences, press kit materials, etc)

Once complete, we can take that and start to build a marketing
calendar around those elements and form sub-teams to build the content
and work on the next steps.

What are everyone's thoughts about that?  What if we were take next
week, the first week of May, and do some brainstorming around our
audiences.  I'd recommend we then take the next two weeks and develop
some high level messages by those audiences.

I am more than happy to help moderate and make sure we stay on topic,
and start capturing these ideas and building a plan on lgo/Marketing.

Thoughts?

Paul

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Claus Schwarm
<clschwarm googlemail com> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Dave Neary <dneary gnome org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>
>
>>
>> You've said quite a bit about what's useless Claus - any suggestions on
>> what would be use*ful*? Preferably, referring to what GNOME is, and what
>> GNOME 3 will be, rather than what you think it should be?
>>
>
> Well, I also said quite a lot of useful stuff: Nobody mentioned a budget so
> far. Nobody mentioned that we you have to decide what do you want people to
> do. See my mail to Brian how to turn a feature to potential benefit and
> headlines around "accessibility". If you'd like an emotional campaign about
> "freedom", I can upload a mock-up.
>
> But you guys make this all too complicated.
>
> GNOME 3 is a large major update that is supposed to hit the streets one a
> certain date. Let's advertise that. It simplifies the development platform.
> Let's advertise that. It will be easier for third-party developers (so I
> understand) to make language bindings and thus applications. Why not
> advertise that? So, in a five -- ok, ten -- minute brainstorming and the
> usual caveat about English being not my first language:
>
> Potential Campaign
> ==================
>
>     Slogan: Fundamentally Different.
>
>     Image: "Strange" people that look sympathetic to a young audience, for
> example. Or a couple that is obviously different and doesn't fit. (This
> builds on "difference") Or use something more abstract, not so effective but
> more agreeable: Colored Lego blocks, Photoshopped "strange" houses, etc. --
> something that plays with "foundation", "basement", "grounding"...
>
>     Sub-Slogan: Different Software For a Different Generation.
>
>     Text: TODO.
>
>     Action line (for print stuff): "Visit www.get-gnome3.org today and get
> the difference (or: be different). No price tag. No strings attached. Just
> FREE.
>
> This is obviously for posters where some additional text for explanation
> might be useful. No big deal turning this into a flyer with more text inside
> to explain the difference, using some benefit headlines about the stuff you
> want to communicate. Some examples that builds on the previous discussion:
>
>     H1: (Finally ?) Understand What Your Computer Says.
>           (Text mentions Usability and i18n stuff.)
>
>     H2: Get a Growing Selection of Software for FREE.
>           (Text mentions Open Source Stuff.)
>
>     H3: Share Your Ideas and Software With Your Friends.
>           (Text mentions Open Source stuff, again. Also compatibility.)
>
>     H4: Be Your Own Creator.
>          (Text mentions free development tools and languages and how easy it
> is to start making your own stuff.)
>
> The backside of the flyer could get an action element, a sort of coupon:
> "Register at get-gnome3.org today and receive (whatever)." There could be a
> code so we can learn which media/location was most successful. Hard data, no
> more HiPPO.
>
>
> Potential Campaign elements
> ======================
>
>     * Media Partnership (as mentioned in my first mail)
>     * Web Banners: Build on the above image and slogan, to be used in blogs,
> third-party websites, etc. Start maybe 6 or 3 months before release with a
> countdown.
>     * Web Site: Reiteration of the main points but different action line:
> "Download Now". Also back-end to organize Supporters to organize Booth
> Presentations, Media Distribution, etc.
>     * Media Distribution: At universities and schools to distribute Posters
> and Flyers.
>     * Booth presentations: At universities and schools (thus the focus on
> young people in the images) to distribute media partnership CDs.
>     * Video Contest: "Are You Different?" Side Campaign On GNOME users to
> explain why they  are differnet and why they use GNOME.
>
> Of course, we could throw in other stuff when the visuals and text is ready.
> A Standard Presentation for Developers, for example. We can also throw out
> stuff when there're no volunteers.
>
> Wasn't that complicated, was it?
>
> Now I'm curious whether you can come up with any other idea. Let's be
> creative and have some fun.
>
>
> Best Regards,
> Claus
>

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