Being the Pushpin
July 05, 2007
Businesses in Seattle are lining up for a test program from Microsoft. To promote the Collections custom mapping feature on Live Search, Microsoft is mounting huge ballons on the corners of the buildings that look like pushpins. These businesses have been marked in the mapping program as part of a collection, making them appear very special. Wouldn't it be fun if your favorite haunts were marked and you could tell all your friends? This is a marketing campaign that makes it fun for everyone to participate.
SeattlePI.com: Microsoft's latest marketing ploy: Gigantic pushpins. 2007-Jun-28, by Todd Bishop
Microsoft didn't pay to install the pins. Instead, Osmer said, the businesses are assuming they'll be getting some attention out of the arrangement, as well. The pins will be in their current locations for a couple of weeks, and Microsoft plans to put more pins elsewhere in the city in the coming month. If the campaign is successful, Osmer said, it may be expanded to other cities.
We're anxiously awaiting word from the artist currently known as Prince as to his reasoning behind distributing his new album, Planet Earth, for free in the UK. First he decided to give it away with tickets to his London concerts, then it was distributed free in The Sunday Mail, as well. The Sunday Mail publisher is crowing about their position as a leading-edge promoter of fine music, but I think Prince is trying to redesign the connection with his public once again, and Sunday Mail got to hitch on for the ride. So what's he going to do for fans in the rest of the world?? I don't understand what's going on well enough to judge this as a marketing tactic. Maybe it's just an experiment? Billboard.com: