Julie tries to herd all the cats bouncing off the walls on this
issue (mea culpa: I'm one of the cats):
In between "real work" I've managed to scan most of today's
"publicize the e3000" thread and associated spin-offs. My
daily $0.10:
> I think there is such a thing as trying to do too much with one
> ad.
I agree.... but before we (using "we" in its matchlessly elastic
form here) decide what is "too much", "too little", and (hopefully)
"just right".....: I just looked at all the full-page ads in today's
IBD (there are 15 or so). Many are *packed* with words and
graphics (we don't want that). Only one is mostly white space
(a waste, IMO). The rest (by Compaq, DELL, Ameritrade, etc)
look "well formed" and balanced to me; lot of white space while
still containing considerable graphics and several times the
number of words even in last "extended version" I and others
threw out.... In any case, for those that have not done so,
suggest glancing at the current offering of full-page ads in
WSJ or IBD; it may give you a good feel for how much is
"just right"... :-)
SIDEBAR in passing: Reported in IBD today: HP spinoff
Agilent says it will "cut its work force by 9 percent"....
> ..... You not only want to get people's attention, you really
> want to make them aware than this was customer driven
What she said; 100 percent. With all due respect to thoughts
about making this look like it was an HP ad, IMO that's way too
far into inside baseball: Vendors take out 10,000 ads in pubs
every day; that's not news. A vendor's *customers* taking out
a full-page or so ad in the WSJ along the lines of "please don't
keep Cinderella in rags in the kitchen"... *That's* news; news
that seems like it would have a good chance to be followed up
by the mainstream IT trade rags; and cause them to ask the
CEO of said vendor a few "interesting" questions that it will be
hard for HP Corporate to ignore...
> Coming from the non-tech point of view, may I suggest the
> letter in a large font, followed by the logo/slogan in a smaller
> font thusly (I've made some minor adjustments to the text):
>
> "Dear Carly:
>
> We like the HP e3000 that Hewlett-Packard
> invented 25 years ago so much that
> we took out a full-page ad in
> The Wall Street Journal to tell you.
>
> Signed,
> MPE/iX users worldwide*
I still like the above... :-) ... one tweak thought (although the
above ain't bad): Since "HP 3000", "MPE/iX", and "Image/SQL"
are the three key "tags" we want to put in front of the world, if it's
going to be a "collective signature", how about:
Signed,
Worldwide Users of MPE/iX and Image/SQL
My updated virtual vision thing on the "top half" or maybe even
the "top two-thirds" of the page (see again current WSJ / IBD):
The above words on the left-hand side of top half page or so.
A Snowy Owl with the "Who Knew ?" tag line on the right-hand
side of top half page or so. That would allow for a big Owl and
a BIG font; with still mostly white space; that would really stand
out and be hard to miss even for "fast scanners".
For the "rest", Julie trimmed the next paragraph a bit and
"multiplexed" the "other URL's".
> P.S. Your turn next: Don't be bashful
> about telling everyone how the HP e3000
> uses MPE/iX and Image/SQL to run their
> online retailing and credit unions, and
> sells them their airline tickets. Tell
> them they can find more information
> at http://www.hp.com/go/3000.
How about a slight compromise on the last two lines:
> ............................................ Tell
> them about: http://www.hp.com/go/3000
> and: http://websiteofothersources.org
Why the nit-pick ??.. IMO it's important the HP URL *not* be
the ONLY one on the page. but agree "websiteofothersources"
is probably just about as good as listing five....
But... now.. what to do with the rest of the bottom half or one-
third of that huge full page ??... Here I still have to gently and
respectfully disagree with Julie and others: If you add:
===============================
And don't forget to remind people that the
HP 3000 MPE/iX Operating System and
the Image/SQL DBMS run on PA-RISC
hardware just like the HP 9000; and will
run on the same IA-64 hardware as
Windows 2000, LINUX, and HP-UX....
And of course don't hesitate to brag about
how MPE/iX is the strategic OS that only
HP was able to invent....
================================
... the whole page will still look very clean and "austere",
compared to 90+ percent of the other full-page ads.... :-)
hmmm..... (I can't believe I'm going to do this tonight....):
< short interlude >
O.K... For anybody who might be willing to punch it through
an auto-HTML convert, I just generated a *beta* (or probably
still alpha) straw-man ad copy in MS Word 2000. Anybody
who wants it, I will email it to you (I can't let anyone through
our firewall to an internal web site). Will down-covert to MS
Word 6.0 if required.
< smug alert > I think it doesn't look half-bad; for someone
who is *totally* useless as a free-hand artist...... ;-)
Other options ??... well, confess I have taken quite a liking to
Cortlandt's last; even though that would put a "harder edge" on
the whole thing (which I'm not necessarily against.....):
=================================
"MPE/iX is the crown jewel of the computer industry."
- HP lawyer, <name of case>, July 2000
"We support three operating systems: HP-UX, NT, and Linux."
- HP spokesman, July 2000
CONFUSED?
==================================
... and then there was the private email suggestion I got:
"This ad has been paid for by but a few of the loyal HP 3000
users who actually DO have a life outside of work, unlike those
poor souls that have to administer other types of business
computers."
SUMMARY: Yeah; we have to draw the line somewhere (if it
ends up being drawn at all); exactly where to cut it is not an
easy decision (remember: This will almost certainly be a ONE
SHOT DEAL; say it now or never)......
SIDEBAR "What he said": Stan quite reasonably asked:
> Where is Interex?
Answer: At HPW: Ask again; at the roundtables; at the Interex
business meeting, etc....
Ken Sletten
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