Marketing/Ideas/Promotion

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Concentrate on the actual apps rather than the entire suite

Promote "Writer" and "Impress" and "Calc" etc as standalone entities, concentrating on the appeal of each app exclusively. Many people use a word processor but go nowhere near a spreadsheet. Awareness of the whole LibreOffice suite will come later (by "osmosis" if nothing else). Looking back to being a kid, I knew "Windows" long before I knew "Microsoft".

An ad campain with different people in different setups but with "Writer" being the common theme/ promoted app. Then a different one with scientists/ admin types pimping the use of "Calc" etc. The LibreOffice branding can of course feature but it's a secondary concern next to the name of the app (people used to say "I did it in Word" not "I did it in Microsoft Word" because that's just not important, the tool itself is important but everyday users just don't concern themselves with who developed it. WE do, but they don't).

I even know several people that pronounce LibreOffice differently, Leeber-Office, Libra-Office, Libber-Office etc. People tend to pronounce the apps quite easily though. Writer. Impress. Calc. Go for the tools rather than the entire suite, the user will discover that later.

Web-page video similar to the "Meet Firefox" video

Idea: Video similar to the Meet Firefox video.

Proposal: LibreOffice video sample by Dave Johnson: http://www.davefilms.us/LibO.ogg. The song is called "Is there anything wrong with us?" Copyright (P) Dave Johnson 2010

Sticker "i Love libreoffice"

Design, only to be sent to a printer for production.

I love LibreOffice

(lager version available with Cornouws (talk) )

Advertising Campaign: LibreOffice is...

The kids are typing a short story, using LibreOffice Writer, about their dog. The idea is LibreOffice is fun for kids to use and to have fun learning. The focus of the ad campaign is on the ease of use for kids in school. It's fun to use and easy to understand.

Broadcast Mailing List (or Email Newsletter)

Every company and many FLOSS projects have optional broadcast mailing lists or newsletters they use to keep their customers informed and interested in what they are working one.

One example is Miro. After downloading, they ask you to join the updates list and send occasional reminder emails with tips and upgrade suggestions to this broadcast list. For example, see their signup page: http://www.getmiro.com/download/for-macOS/ This list needs good, regular, end-user content in nicely formatted HTML emails.

I (Ben) contacted a developer who built a similar system recently, and this is how he did it: "We've been using MailChimp for a while now to handle all our email campaigns (http://mailchimp.com). The weekly update [emails] are actually RSS-driven campaigns. MailChimp essentially lets us setup an email template and then build a campaign that will be sent at regular intervals that simply automagically pulls whatever content was published in an RSS feed since the last campaign was sent. It's really handy because it's all automated. We then do separate campaigns as well that we custom design and build and send out (meaning that are not RSS-driven) as well... BTW - there is a great MailChimp module for Drupal as well that makes it easy to do things like add a signup option for one of your MailChimp mailing lists on user registration forms and stuff like that."

Street Teams

Street Teams are like "campus ambassadors", as successfully implemented by Mozilla, but with a broader focus. In the world of music promotion, the concept of "street teams" is frequently used. They are groups of enthusiasts who carry out local promotional efforts—like distributing flyers and hanging posters to promote upcoming concerts. We can adapt the idea to LibO somehow, and would like the website to support this by allowing the creation, by users, of small interest groups for conversations, file sharing, and event planning. I think it will be especially effective on campuses, but also useful outside of these realms too.

The general toolset should match what we're familiar with from grassroots political campaigns, tie in to social networking sites for street teams to further promote their activities, and help connect them to government, university and NGO decision makers to promote LibO in all these areas (via email, calls and faxes). It should allow sharing of files so that one team can create a great poster that others adopt and adapt to their local conditions, or a video for the same purpose.

Specifically, street teams will: hang posters on public bulletin boards, hand out flyers and cards and CDs, produce, wear and distribute t-shirts and hats, set up install-fest tables at events where laptops are common (coffee shops, hacker spaces, campus fairs, etc?), facilitate others to email and call decision-makers to implement LibO in their districts, run contests for new promotional designs, talk to strangers about LibO and FOSS, etc.

We should create a cool t-shirt for Street Teams to wear, "LibreOffice Street Team NYC" or "LibreOffice Street Team at New York University", etc.

LibreOffice à la Carte (Drinks and Food)

Rationale

To expand brand recognition and show that LibreOffice can be used in many other instances and in a variety of ways as well as flavours, a LibreOffice menu of food and drinks will be created. Not only will we be able to enjoy LibreOffice as an office suite, but as well as a recognisable brand in foods and drinks.

Foods and drinks will have to follow the same rigours as the office suite marketing/design concepts. Branding recommendations as well as use of the official LibreOffice colour palette will be respected.

Strategy

Primary guideline: as per membership conversation: Drinks will be NON-ALCOHOLIC in composition. Recipes must be opensource of course and properly laid out as per conventional recipe format. Adopting the LibreOffice Recipe Template (under consideration at this point) and/or improving the template is highly recommended for conformity. Note: You may find a recipe template on the OOo site here for use: https://templates.openoffice.org/en/node/3099. Drinks/Foods may be international in compostion (ingredients), however, they may also be localised making use of localised ingredients. Drinks/Food may have an intended targeted user strategy. The main purpose is to have fun promoting the best office suite distribution - LibreOffice.

Discussion

The marketing idea was discussed shortly on the marketing mailist under the title of ""[LibreOffice Drink] Suggestions (branding colour palette)": https://go.mail-archive.com/b7Z0JEFdrXAN_mjxFEGJeYMQjN4=

The concept was further discussed at a marketing confcall here: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.steering-discuss/142

Drinks

milkshake
appéritif (non-alcoholic)
fruit drink in layers

Food

cake
cheese cake
pudding
ratatouille
soups