A “swarm” is a group of 1 to 15 people who commit to buying a Dell computer at an increasingly reduced price over 72 hour period.

E.g if a Dell Mini is priced at $899, the first person who join the Swarm will be paying about $869 for it, but if that person managed to get another 14 people to join their Swarm, the price will reduce to $799.

The 72 hour timeframe brings the purchase within the “gotta have it now” acceptable period for acquiring shiny new things.

The value for Dell here lies not in the bulk sale, but using the natural tendency of peers and online communities to influence purchase. Think of the little extra push you’re going to give a mate, a colleague or even a stranger online to commit to purchasing the exact product you want, so that your whole group benefits.

Dell also encourages swarmers to use Facebook groups, widgets, twitter, IM & forums to spread word of their sale. And the opportunity is there for ambivalent consumers to be pulled to one offer or another by influential peers (or posts).

Group buying isn’t new. Car enthusiasts and computer geeks have a history of group buying exotic parts in quantity enough to make shipping or wholesale prices feasible. Collective buying site Groupon has sold over 1.2 million group lots for local and enterprise businesses in UK and USA. But it’s interesting to see the world largest computer manufacturer experiment with different models of not only selling, but marketing via the social space.

The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.

Made me laugh.

Let me get this straight: if a newspaper business re-structures itself to be awarded 501(c)(3) corporation status (non-profit) then it just might receive the same tax-breaks as 501(c)(3) corporations receive. Seriously? REALLLLLY?!?!?

That’;s not a bailout, that’s x=x logic. But that is great reporting.

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

DO THIS OR DIE

Is this ad some kind of trick?

No. But it could have been. And at exactly that point rests a do or die decision for American business. We in advertising, together with our clients, have all the power and skill to trick people. Or so we think. But we’re wrong. We can’t fool any of the people any of the time. There is indeed a twelve-year-old mentality in this country; every six-year-old has one. We are a nation of smart people. And most smart people ignore most advertising because most advertising ignores smart people. Instead we talk to each other. We debate endlessly about the medium and the message. Nonsense. In advertising, the message itself is the message. A blank page and a blank television screen are one and the same. And above all, the messages we put on those pages and on those television screens must be the truth. For if we play tricks with the truth, we die.

Now. The other side of the coin. Telling the truth about a product demands a product that’s worth telling the truth about. Sadly, so many products aren’t. So many products don’t do anything better. Or anything different. So many don’t work quite right. Or don’t last. Or simply don’t matter. If we also play this trick, we also die. Because advertising only helps a bad product fail faster. No donkey chases the carrot forever. He catches on. And quits. That’s the lesson to remember. Unless we do, we die. Unless we change, the tidal wave of consumer indifference will wallop into the mountain of advertising and manufacturing drivel. That day we die. We’ll die in our marketplace. On our shelves. In our gleaming packages of empty promises. Not with a bang. Not with a whimper. But by our own skilled hands.

This is more than an ad – it’s a manifesto that should be printed, mounted and read in every office. Old DDB print copy can be read over and over again, and lines like this make it a worthwhile activity:

“There is indeed a twelve-year-old mentality in this country; every six-year-old has one.”

Maybe customers aren’t as dumb as they/we think. A thought as valid today as the day it was published.

For me, the aggregate price of moving to a tropical paradise (Bahia, Brazil) to concentrate on a few personal-professional projects was a much easier investment than balancing work/life/rent/startup back in Sydney.

Flights to South American countries like Brazil, Colombia or Bolivia have dropped significantly in price over the past 6 months, with returns under $1000 pretty easy to find.

I’m currently working in Morro de Sao Paulo, a tropical island in the north of Brazil, where there are no cars, only donkeys and wheelbarrows. Suffice to say, the tranquility is pretty conducive to long but pleasant work-hours.

My office:

• Rent, food, booze & broadband wi-fi for around AUD$50 per day total. This would suit up to 4 people. What does your office space, plus home rent, plus utilities for both add up to?
• Seclusion and serenity, with the most virulent distractions being small long-tailed monkeys on the balcony and the occasional chirping gecko.

Think about the essentials for your startup and why exactly you need to be in the city you’re currently in? If you’ve saved a bit of money, or secured some initial investment, would that money go further somewhere else in the world that might additionally benefit your business?

America Is F*cked…….(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.

Mad Men Illustrations by Dyna Moe

Link: AMAZING era-style illustrations based on key scenes and characters from Mad Men.

Agency Butler Shine Stern & Partners have released this fun little online Carfun Footprint calculator for Mini USA. It takes your car make and model as inputs, then computers your Footprint using data from an independent customer vehicle experience survey, as well as EPA (USA) fuel efficiency, emissions and production cost factors.

There’s a Layman’s explanation of their methodology, but for a complete rundown, click on “Rocket Scientist’s Version”. Cute.

A nice example of creative value for your product, and residual value-added experiences for your customers, by inventing a point of difference that is supported and believable.

How to improve on the Carfun Footprint site for Mini

1. Better send-to-friend!

Hopefully new extensions would include a “taunt your frivolous mates” send-to-friend option, where you can berate your irresponsible (or buzzkill) friends for having a car that is either too fun, or not fun enough..

2. Include motorbikes!

I have a sneaking suspicion that my Yamaha R6 or better still, new Suzuki GSXR750 might bee a teeeeency bit more fun at a substantially smaller environmental impact. Time for one of the motorbike makers to subvert this campaign, I say.

I’m yet to see a “Me so solly!” reference, so the most heinous variants has to be the Chinese food pun. But there’s WEEKs of opportunity left for someone to bust out a “Me So Solly!” and just make my brain explode.

My observed current medal tally stands at:

CURRENT GOLD WINNER: TAB betting point of sale signage for Beijing olympic betting

Beijing Olympics Chinese Food Pun - TAB Sportsbet

SILVER MEDAL WINNER: Basically anything to do with Stephanie Rice. As well as being fairly easy to look at, the name is worth it’s weight in well… you know. Overheard or observed on Channel 7 in the past 3 days:

• “Special Fly Rice”
• “Rice will take away gold in China”
• “Rice steams through the competition”

BRONZE MEDAL WINNER: [TBC, Check back for updatres]