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Ubuntu Open Week - Ubuntu Marketing Team - Jenda Vančura - Sat, Apr 28, 2007

see also Thursday Session.

TZ UTC-4

(12:01:52 PM) jenda: My name is Jenda Vančura and I'll be talking about the Marketing Team.
(12:02:06 PM) jenda: If it weren't for the Marketing Team, I wouldn't be here right now...
(12:02:42 PM) jenda: No, honestly, I would've come at 20:00 UTC thinking I was supposed to talk - they did a remarkable job of reminding me the time was 16:00 :)
(12:03:41 PM) jenda: Anyway... I'll start off by saying that I do not lead the marketing team. We have decided the MT should have no official leader on our first meeting. I'll return to the structure of the team later.
(12:04:44 PM) jenda: On the previous session, I said I was hoping for some marketing team folks to drop in later and talk a bit about their own projects, but in the end only beuno arrived, so we'll see how that turns out today.
(12:05:10 PM) jenda: At the beginning of the Open Week, jono said I'd be talking about marketing.
(12:05:18 PM) jenda: Well, don't be fooled... I know nothing about marketing.
(12:05:30 PM) jenda: I'll be talking about Ubuntu's Marketing _Team_
(12:05:57 PM) jenda: There are others much more qualified to talk about actual marketing and as I said, they might appear a little bit later on.
(12:06:08 PM) jenda: (but experience has shown they also might not :))
(12:06:59 PM) jenda: The MT's most interesting attribute, IMO, is the fact that it's a place where even the least technical of us Ubuntu lovers can find a way to contribute.
(12:07:51 PM) jenda: The MT is a loosely knit group of projects, listed on the MT's wikipage (/MarketingTeam), most of which are constantly looking for volunteers to help out.
(12:08:16 PM) jenda: You can also start new projects affiliated with the Marketing Team at any time - we will most probably help you out :)
(12:09:26 PM) jenda: Now that mentioned wikipage is a bit outdated, for which I apologize. It's the most obvious shortcoming of the MT's leaderlessness - there's no particular person responsible for that page.
(12:09:58 PM) jenda: (with the exception of our deserted wiki-man, whom I won't name here :)
(12:11:19 PM) jenda: The Marketing Team is a pure community effort and has little or no contact with Canonical's proffessional marketing, save the occasional consultation.
(12:12:35 PM) jenda: This means that the Marketing Team is no formal/legal entity and has no budget of its own.
(12:13:22 PM) jenda: With no budget - professional marketing is out of the MT's reach.
(12:13:36 PM) jenda: The MT focuses on what the community can do best: grassroots marketing.
(12:14:23 PM) jenda: Currently, what the MT is doing, what I think it should be doing and what it could be doing in the future are three largely disjunct categories.
(12:14:44 PM) jenda: Well, no, not disjunct - the latter two overlap.
(12:15:30 PM) jenda: The Marketing Team's only truly active projects are the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter (which I assume all of you read on a regular basis...)
(12:15:44 PM) jenda: and the Fridge, which maintains its existence rather separately from the MT.
(12:16:24 PM) jenda: Another active and complete project is the ubuntu counter (it's a fire and forget kind of project)
(12:16:34 PM) jenda: All three of these have one important aspect in common
(12:16:40 PM) jenda: they focus _within_ the community
(12:17:03 PM) jenda: The UWN and the Fridge are both news sources for the community - outsiders probably couldn't care less.
(12:17:21 PM) jenda: (although I believe the two aren't mutually redundant - each has its place)
(12:18:58 PM) jenda: The counter, on the other hand, is also only of interest to the Ubuntu user, who wants to see his own number as a user. Once again, Joe Windows User couldn't care less (although he'd probably be interested in a total estimate of Ubuntu users, which is currently from 5-8 million I believe).
(12:19:34 PM) jenda: So, in all honesty... are these projects _marketing_ projects?
(12:20:03 PM) jenda: I'd say no, they aren't, but they've found their place in the MT. There's nothing wrong with that.
(12:20:56 PM) jenda: This is a pattern that every MT project to date has followed - and i'll admit even the DIY project I focus on most is currently focused more on current Ubuntu users than non-users.
(12:21:20 PM) jenda: I hope to be able to get to the details of these projects towards the end of the session.
(12:21:37 PM) jenda: The pattern I described is, I believe clear: it's immensely easier to work for a target audience within the existing community than the TA without.
(12:21:58 PM) jenda: And from this I conclude - we aughtta focus on the latter of the two! :)
(12:22:09 PM) jenda: My personal opinion (and observation) is that the only _real_ marketing, as described above, can be done by LoCo teams.
(12:22:36 PM) jenda: Only the LoCos have a close enough face-to-face contact with the hopeful TA
(12:23:02 PM) jenda: Now I'm not saying the MT cannot do its work.
(12:23:15 PM) jenda: I'm saying it needs to adjust its work, taking the above into account.
(12:23:26 PM) jenda: It allows us to split marketing efforts into two basic categories
(12:23:53 PM) jenda: The first category would be local marketing activities, which can only be done by LoCos
(12:24:09 PM) jenda: The second would be marketing campaigns of a global nature.
(12:25:22 PM) jenda: Once again, my experience says the latter category is nearly an empty set. The few thing that could be found in there (web ads and the like) are usually expensive or ineffective.
(12:25:37 PM) jenda: Therefore I'll focus on the first category.
(12:26:20 PM) jenda: (On second though, things like video ads and the like might belong to the second category, and would be of interest to the MT... lemme get back to that later)
(12:27:16 PM) jenda: The first category would include everything from press releases, media contact, install fests, conferences, expos, face-to-face advocacy, etc.
(12:27:47 PM) jenda: All these things cannot be done by the Marketing Team. The LoCos are much better suited to perform them.
(12:27:56 PM) jenda: So what can the MT do?
(12:28:01 PM) jenda: That is the question ;)
(12:28:28 PM) jenda: The answer is: a lot of the work the locoteams do will have to be replicated by other locos in order to achieve the same result in their area.
(12:28:39 PM) jenda: This means, a lot of effort can be saved by them either sharing their work, or someone (hint: MT) to predict their needs and cater to them, centrally.
(12:28:53 PM) jenda: My focus within the team, and my vision for the entire team is just that - it should provide resources for the LoCo teams to use.
(12:29:45 PM) jenda: (it might be interesting to notice how this role of connecting the LoCos' efforts is close to the role of communication the MT fulfills currently with the UWN and the Fridge)
(12:30:23 PM) jenda: Now I think that's about all I have to say for the MT's role. I'll move on to its structure (that'll be quick ;))
(12:30:42 PM) jenda: The MT is quite simply composed of individual projects, the sub-teams of which overlap.
(12:31:13 PM) jenda: There is rarely a need to decide for the entire team, and when there is, it is decided by consensus or simply acquiesced.
(12:32:14 PM) jenda: Most notably, the decisions we make for the entire team are times of meetings.
(12:32:38 PM) jenda: Usually, on of the MT members would write them out, and unless there's a complaint from someone who really has something to say at the meeting, it usually stays at that.
(12:32:48 PM) jenda: I'll now move on to the individual projects.
(12:33:07 PM) jenda: yay, we have 27 minutes left, we might have enough time for them, even :)
(12:33:33 PM) ***jenda looks around for MT members who could say a bit about their MT projects
(12:34:18 PM) jenda: I can't see anyone from the UWN
(12:34:35 PM) jenda: Well, I'll just say a few quick words myself, then
(12:35:06 PM) jenda: The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is a weekly document sent out by email, published on the wiki and ubuntuforums.org.
(12:35:39 PM) jenda: It contains all sorts of info on what happens throughout the community.
(12:36:00 PM) jenda: If you still haven't read it, be sure to check out wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter
(12:36:07 PM) jenda: The UWN is also _created_ on the wiki.
(12:36:15 PM) jenda: You know what that means....
(12:36:31 PM) jenda: You are not only allowed, but also encouraged and _expected_ to help out with it.
(12:36:45 PM) jenda: The UWN is short on manpower right now (well, it usually tends to be :))
(12:37:06 PM) jenda: Please do look at that wiki and join #ubuntu-marketing to help bring the news! :)
(12:37:49 PM) jenda: That would be all about the UWN...
(12:37:56 PM) jenda: Now the DIY Marketing project.
(12:38:29 PM) jenda: The DIY Marketing project is an offshoot of Spreadubuntu, and that basically because i thought SU was a chunk little too large to chew.
(12:39:01 PM) jenda: meatballhat, beuno and I have been working on it, and an outline is written at wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/DIYWebsite
(12:39:33 PM) jenda: The goal of this site is largely what I said was the goal of the MT as a whole, which proves I'm implicitly biased towards this project :)
(12:39:49 PM) jenda: It serves to provide resources for LoCo teams, and that namely:
(12:40:13 PM) jenda: 1) Printable digital data for marketing materials // digital data for online use
(12:40:50 PM) jenda: 2) Ready made marketing materials to be shipped to LoCos and individuals for as cheap as possible
(12:41:47 PM) jenda: 3) Guidelines, howtos and tips on stuff you could do as a locoteam and individual to promote Ubuntu in your area
(12:42:07 PM) jenda: 4) Guidelines for people interested to feed the above 3 categories
(12:42:20 PM) jenda: 5) The answer to "What can I do to spread Ubuntu?"
(12:42:52 PM) jenda: And now, as promised, I'll give the word to meatballhat to say a few words about the project :)
(12:43:08 PM) meatballhat: hello all ... I'll keep it quick :)
(12:43:36 PM) meatballhat: the last thing we want is for the DIY Marketing site to be the following:
(12:43:48 PM) meatballhat: * an upload-crazy black hole
(12:44:24 PM) meatballhat: * another Ubuntu.com lookalike .... adding to the web clutter
(12:44:39 PM) meatballhat: * difficult to understand
(12:44:44 PM) meatballhat: * difficult to use
(12:44:45 PM) meatballhat: :D
(12:45:07 PM) meatballhat: for some Use Cases, lookie here --> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam/DIYWebsite/DesignSpec
(12:45:29 PM) meatballhat: We have recently been blessed with the direction of troy_s, leader of the Ubuntu Artwork Team
(12:45:58 PM) ***jenda notes meatballhat is in charge of how the site's design and technical workings
(12:47:19 PM) meatballhat: The development version of the site has been graciously hosted by MitchM out in Colorado
(12:47:35 PM) meatballhat: it's currently in a non-working state here:  http://diy.devubuntu.com/
(12:48:11 PM) ***jenda was hoping to hide that non-working copy which he used to call the working copy from the audience ;)
(12:49:00 PM) meatballhat: when all is done (hopefully in the coming weeks) the DIY Marketing site should be a uniquely-branded and recognizable product ... much like how Ubuntu users have come to know Launchpad, for instance
(12:50:17 PM) meatballhat: With the completion of the visual design spec (thanks to troy_s's direction) ...
(12:51:03 PM) meatballhat: we will work to continue this type of guidance on the DIY Site itself... (see jenda's points 4 and 5 above)
(12:51:20 PM) meatballhat: thanks, all!
(12:51:36 PM) jenda: okeydoke
(12:51:46 PM) jenda: I'll just have one more note about the shipped materials.
(12:52:12 PM) jenda: To date, several community members have invested money to produce bulk materials and ship them out to the community.
(12:52:53 PM) jenda: juliux here, for example, has created and shipped about 150 beautiful Ubuntu shirts for reasonable prices, and all that while generating a profit for Ubuntu DE to use.
(12:53:34 PM) jenda: I myself have made and shipped over 550 posters and 7500 stickers (ordering 6000 more now :)) and generated funds for the MT and my Czech LoCo to use.
(12:53:44 PM) jenda: You are all welcome to do the very same - it's a win-win
(12:54:49 PM) jenda: One note worth making is that once again items focused towards the community such as shirts, stickers and decorative posters sell much better than actual marketing material, like booklets, fliers and ad-posters - which would probably be lossy.
(12:55:25 PM) jenda: I personally intend to generate money with the lucrative items to be able to create the ones that have to be handed out with a loss later on.
(12:55:47 PM) jenda: The DIY site will also serve to instruct and encourage people to do projects like this on their own.
(12:55:51 PM) jenda: Howgh - questions!
(12:55:52 PM) jenda: :)

<ditsch> QUESTION: What is the relationship of the Marketing team to Full Circle magazine, if there is one?

• a similar question was asked on the first session. The FCM is staying largely clear of the Marketing Team, but is very much supported by us and we hope to see more cooperation in the future. I think such a magazine is a good thing to have, and will forever admire the authors if they manage to make it interesting even for people who don't use Ubuntu yet, or have just started. In fact, I think I'll send them each free stickers if they do

(01:00:26 PM) jenda: thanks for you attention, thanks to meatballhat for participation and thank to PriceChild for questions... erm... the question.
(01:00:44 PM) PriceChild: hey I think it was done well :)
(01:00:51 PM) jenda: :)