I learned some time ago – and this has been reinforced many times since – that my sense of humour is not a good guide to marketing decisions. Luckily, other people at Red Gate quickly overrule me any time I try to get involved in marketing. That’s why, if you visit Red Gate’s stand at Tech Ed this June, you’ll get a funky Red Gate t-shirt rather than a cool pair of Red Gate underpants.
Occasionally, and regrettably, I get my own way though. And that’s almost always a mistake. That’s why I sent out 140 Seth Godin dolls out to last year’s attendees of Business of Software 2007. Seth is speaking at Business of Software 2008, and I thought this would be a really cool way of getting people who came last year to sign up to this year’s conference.
They seem to have sunk without trace.
Or have they? I want to find out. I’m running a photo competition. If you have a Seth Godin doll (from me, or maybe you have one anyway) then e-mail a photo of your Seth doll to me at neil.davidson@businessofsoftware.org, and I’ll post it up. The more interesting the better. Assuming that anybody enters (a big assumption), I’ll send out a copy of one of Seth’s books to what I judge to be the best photo.
[Update: you can’t post images in typepad comments so you’ll need to e-mail me the photo and I’ll post it up]
The entries
Jim Kring:
My entries:
Here is Tom Randle’s entry:
You can see another of Tom’s Seth Godin photos, and read the story behind this one, at Tommy Toast’s flickr stream.
Mr Flibble’s entry:
Mr Flibble’s flickr stream is well worth a look too.
These three are from embe:
This one from s3a is called I said bring me a Sith, with an i!
You can find a larger version at s3a’s flickr stream.
Mr Flibble saw s3a’s entry and was inspired to send in two more entries:
Another one from s3a:
Sheri’s entry:
