Asleep On the Show Floor
You're familiar with those stories from people who awaken from a sort-of air hypnosis, on a plane somewhere over somewhere, with no idea of where they came from or where they're going. Those stories never pull my heartstrings, as this complaint sounds a lot like someone complaining about their servants or the lack of good titanium bike rentals on Santorini. Count your blessings, get some sleep and try to do some good for the world, I say.
That said, it's a rare "warm San Francisca night," and very warm out here in the East Bay suburbs as well, as I face the blank screen and try to remember exactly what trade show it was that I attended at Moscone Center a few weeks ago.
Oh, that's right, it was LinuxWorld Expo, and I remember being all excited at seeing a lot of major vendors and a very large crowd by post-com convention standards. Certainly there's been a significant number of well-crafted stories and many interesting story lines have emerged in the ensuing few weeks: SCO battles to save its sinking ship, Steve Ballmer treats Linux like a pinata again (even trotting out the oh-so-1980s FUD Factor specter), Sun gets its dander up over a perceived slight in its Linux-ambivalent positioning.
You've read it all. Nothing to add here about Linux's technical abilities, its threat to established operating environments, or what the major players are saying.
What I can add is my perception of how Linux was being marketed at LinuxWorld Expo. And this is where my event hypnosis kicks in. What was it I saw? Was I just wandering around in a dream? Who was there and what did I see?
Oh yes, it's coming back. HP was there with its new one-note campaign, "Invent." The entire history of a great company, with all its hopes and aspirations for its merged future, summarized in one useful word. "Invent." Great. Thanks. But. What. Does. It. Really. Mean?
IBM had big banners featuring what looked like that kid from Sixth Sense, set amidst a variety of pretentious backdrops, with the more obscure backdrops helpfully identified for us Visigoths who might not recognize every Italian Renaissance parlor on display.
This unseemly display was accompanied by a studiedly vacuous tagline, and you know, I've forgotten what it was. Wrote it down, but some butthead ran off with my bag (and my notes with it) when I unthinkingly left it in the press room, distracted by the really big cookies in there. I've since scanned IBM's website, but find no hint of this campaign, because of course IBM is not integrating its message or anything like that. At least HP stays consistent. With. Its. Inventiveness.
At least no trees have died in the process of publishing my oblique show observations, but even so, it's time to get to the point. LinuxWorld Expo drew a lot of attendees this year. During a bad time when both Comdex and CeBit USA have quit the game (at least for now), LinuxWorld Expo had some bang to it.
The show offered a great chance for the major vendors to step up with their "A" games, and blow us away with sharp messages focused on benefits, comparative advantages, and damn it, some rock and roll. Instead I saw squishiness, disconnectedness, almost indifference. Not to be too rough on the afore-named companies--these are the only ones I can remember. Most others made no impression.
As a firm believer in Ur-Marketing, integrated marketing communications, and the proper combination of steak and sizzle, I'll be following this story, looking at how the leaders are marketing Linux "moving forward," as we corporate guys like to say. Linux is revolutionary in the way the PC was revolutionary, with all the attendant anarachical disruptiveness built right in. Good going, Linus!
Linux has the potential to conquer vast swaths of the world's corporate computing terra electronica. But it will go nowhere if its market leaders continue to give us dream sequences and one-word summaries.
Now, let me tell you about that flight I was just on to Orlando...or was it Lisbon? Anyway...
9:57:39 PM 
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