Lost in the Crowd

The best/worst marketing gimmick I saw at the VON Expo (going on this week in Boston) was a guy walking around advertising Truphone (VoIP for your mobile phone). Their theme was “Still talking to a PC? Unchain yourself”, and they had a downtrodden looking guy in a rumpled, graying white shirt and a Dilbert tie lugging around a PC tethered to him with a handcuffed chain. Clever enough idea. The problem was that the downtrodden, rumpled guy didn’t look all that different than the average guy in the crowd (some of whom were actually walking around trailing roller bags). If they’d wanted their spokesmodel to standout, Truphone should have put him in a sharp, nicely tailored suit. (Hey, what's he doing here?) Or – I hate to say it – chosen a babe to pull the PC along. That people at this event absolutely would have noticed.