Ubuntu advertising campaign help!?

[huinke3]

My partner and I are competing in a competitive event in which we need to create an advertising campaign for a company or product. It is an 11 page paper describing the campaign and a 20 minute presentation in front of judges. We decided to create an ad campaign for Ubuntu. We really don't have much as of now but we wanted to let the community know to see what you guys thought of it and if you had any ideas/advice/ links or any sort of help. We would have to include target markets/promotion plans/budget/profits/market research etc... This has to be done in 1 month and if we do good at the state competition we will advance to nationals in Atlanta Georgia where we will present the campaign there. This creates opportunities for scholarships and possibly money to fund this campaign. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank You

Paul Huinker, Isaac Rockafellow

[Hightide]

HI Guys

the CDs seem to be the only way that we promote ubuntu apart from the most enthusiastic standing in the city centre citing the benefits of ubuntu.

this is a good place to start

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam

you will get help and support here

'may the force be with you'

[smartboyathome]

This may get more support in the Community Cafe. I am going to request it gets moved there.

[Sef]

Moved to Community Cafe.

[huinke3]

http://www.deca.org/pdf/ADC-event.pdf

This gives more detailed information about the event.

[isaacTR]

Hi, I'm Isaac, the other person working on this project. I'm currently working on a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to get some initial brainstorming. I don't know whole lot about ubuntu, so I would be very glad to hear what others have to add. I also apologize if I am misinformed about some things, again, my knowledge is somewhat limited.

My current (very) rough draft:

Strengths- It's free. Updates occur frequently. Safety- there is a very low probability of acquiring a virus. Reliability- there are few crashes when running linux/ubuntu. The community- over one million posts per year on the forums and grassroots advertisement that already occurs. What else?

Weaknesses- Mainstream compatibility- Some games and software often do not support linux. It's new- many people fear or don't see the need to change. Information Fragmentation- I noticed this especially on the "Ubuntu Catalogue" page. It lists the partners, but it would also help to have an easily accessible page on the main Ubuntu site that lists common applications, uses, etc.

Opportunities- Windows has had several screw ups in the past year. The Vista release was thoroughly lack-luster and targeting some of those upset users could work quite well.
Dell recently began carrying laptops that come pre-installed with Ubuntu. Having such a well known name backing a product can significantly increase the potential market.
Finally, continued development. It should continue to get better and better from here, building on success and weeding out problems where they arise.

Threats- Other than the continued popularity of other OS's and the potential that their upgrades and advancements outpace Ubuntu's, I can't easily see many outside threats.


Now, where do you think Ubuntu should advertise to hit certain markets? What do you think should be the target market? Desktops? Servers? Both? Why?

I really would appreciate all suggestions, and thank anyone for taking the time to help.

-Isaac

[Xbehave]

I supose your marketing would have to be mainstream, i think viral (is that the right word?, im talking about stickers and stuff done by individuals) marketing for linux would be a good way to go as it has a huge user base. Im not sure how well it would work i doubt people will change thier OS because of a sticker somewhere but it will raise awareness of alternatives, and for some windows users linux is something they want to do they just never got round to it.

Mainstream marketing for linux normally involves either the
the open source side ( apeals to users)
or slaging of the competition ( buisness probably prefer this)
you may want to havea look at this thread

[huinke3]

Our campaign is going to market Ubuntu in general, but we will mention the newest releases (Gutsy, Hardy Heron) and incorporate them into the plan. Also what are the "biggest" profits that ubuntu receives. Any information regarding ubuntus profits will be helpful since we need to know how much money we can use to advertise. thanks

[Steveway]

In my opinion you should focus more on the terms free (Not free as in money!) and of course on the philosophy behind Ubuntu. (Humanity to others etc...)

[Daveski]

+1 for Freedom. Have a look into the philosophy of the Open Source movement. Freedom to choose is a definate positive, and Open Source has it's own benefits in terms of security and rapid development/evolution.