Fans Flock to Firefox Flicks
First they reinvented the browser, now they're rewriting the rules of advertising -- Firefox's guerrilla marketing has gone straight to video, and it's taking over the web. The collaboratively written application has hit more than 50 million downloads, spurred primarily by word-of-mouth advertising. Minus the deep pockets of archrival Microsoft, the Mozilla Foundation relies on an army of volunteer marketers to spread the word -- users so loyal they devise their own DIY promotion ideas, from painting sidewalks with the browser's logo to e-mailing sales pitches to the White House. The latest tactic for the 100,000 members of the Spread Firefox movement is to make commercials. Funnyfox, three humorous video clips showing web surfers using the browser for the first time, is the slickest contribution to date. Designed to be e-mailed to friends, the videos -- one of which shows a user's head falling off -- have proved so popular that extra servers had to be set up to cope with the load.
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Not sure if making a TV ad is useful:
- people spend now the same or more time in front of the computer than in front of TV
- TV is not international
I very much prefer the idea of Internet spread spots. Just find smart ways of spreading them. E.g.
- produce one for each major encoding format
- try to bundle the ads with some media players as example videos.
(could also be done with SVG. Create a SVG icon/image of firefox and try to bundle it with SVG tools).
- put them on P2P networks. Use some 'attractive' file names and let people download them. (I will let you decide what attractive could be...)
Most important: target the youngs. If Joe uses FF, you can be sure he will install it on daddy's and mummy's machines. So
- get in touch with newspapers targetting youngs. Many of these sites have sections with images and videos. Try to get your videos there.
- try to bundle videos with 3G phone operators. These operators are today starting 3G programmes in Europe and they need content. Propose them this free content.
- what about movies? Why not making an add targeted at cinema's instead?
- make Batman like signs in the sky of big cities using FireFox logos.
- associations with Internet Cafes. If you make FireFox really easily brandable, then that would maybe give them an incentive to use it.
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