It started out as wild ideas exchanged in jest via email and IM. But this concept might just encourage the house-bound problogger in me to go out more often into the wild outdoors to work (meaning anywhere with WiFi, of course). Sacha Chua brought up the concept of networking via messages stuck at the back of laptop lids, and thought it might be a good venue for advertising.
The budding entrepreneur in me thought it might, indeed, be a profitable idea. I can either do this on my own, or set up some clearinghouse of sorts for advertisers and people interested in renting out their laptop lids for ad space.
Apparently, Sacha is going all-out with the idea and is renting out space on her 8.9-inch subnotebook, which she will be bringing to BarCampEarth Toronto this weekend.
Yes, real estate is sparse on this teensy notebook, but it seems the combination of small laptop and geek girl catches attention quite well.
The back of an 8.9″ laptop screen *really* doesn’t seem like much space to advertise on, but *everyone* looks, believe me. It’s the irresistible combination of cute geek girl _and_ insanely tiny laptop. (Gotta love that Sony Vaio PCG-U1!)
And it happens *every* *single* *time.* It helps that I have small hands. Most people just can’t deal with gadgets that small. Sure, black Macbooks are trendy, but they’re not as rare as a *teensy* little laptop that a geek girl is happily typing away on. (In Emacs, no less.)
I can’t help it. I get attention. I might as well make use of it.
It does help that the prospective audience at Sacha’s BarCamp adventure would be geeks–you get a niche audience, so your advertising is targeted. And you get an evangelist to talk about your product or service, to boot!
I’ll be speaking at an IT educators’ convention next week, and this gets me thinking, myself. Would slapping on stickers to the back of my new laptop be worth it? Looking at Sacha’s rate card, I’ll get about 300 bucks if I fill the area of my 14″ widescreen. Well, if a sponsor would subsidize my daily trip to the wireless-enabled cafe (or mall, park or anywhere with good food, great coffee and great people), I would probably give it a go.
Problems solved: I get to go out. I get some writing work done. I get my caffeine fix. I satisfy my sweet tooth. I get some extra cash to spend.
Of course, advertisers should consider some things before sponsoring laptop owners. For instance, they should target laptop owners who are frequently in the public eye, and not just any person who probably leaves his laptop at home or the office. Also, participants should be evangelists in their own right–they should be able to talk about whatever they’re advertising in an honest, positive light.
At the very least, this should be a fun idea to consider. And if messages on your laptop lid don’t make you money, these can at least be good conversation starters.
Sounds like an interesting idea. My laptop lid is already covered in stickers for various things although i never thought of actually being paid for their placement. Until now 🙂
interesting
Sounds like an interesting idea. My laptop lid is already covered in stickers for various things although i never thought of actually being paid for their placement.
yaeh girls love Sony Vaio