Re: desktop branding market

From: Neven Prasnikar <artplus_at_artplus.hr>
Date: Thu 05 Jul 2001 10:58:29 -0500

JULIANA MINSKY <jm_at_surfmedia.com> WROTE:

>I have a question for interactive marketers/developers
>who work with clients who have "licensable" properties
>or artists in entertainment or sports.

>Are your clients happy or upset about the proliferation
>of fan developed desktop gizmos (screensavers,
>wallpaper, browser skins, etc.) available on the web?
>Are companies generally looking the other way and
>enjoying the word-of-mouth exposure, or are they
>making cease & desist efforts and working toward
>having their own sanctioned versions developed and
>available at official sites? Are companies well aware
>of this phenomenon?
>

Unfortunately, companies are NOT all that well aware
of desktop branding nor use of applications for
promotional purpose.

My company built some branded/cobranded applications
that were used for promotional purposes by, for
instance, Tibetan Monks (Promoting exhibition & fund
raising event) or ZDNet (We created custom version of
our program that ZDNet distributes as ZDNet
EasyNoter 1.0)...

Still, even though we *did* break the ice with our
products, I cannot say that I am satisfied by number
of companies that realise the potential behind use of
software adspecialties.

Some may doubt that poor quality of our products may be
the reason, but I assure you it is not... EasyNoter is
TOP rated by ALL major software archives... here is
for instance what ZDNet says about our Game of Memory:
"Art Plus Game of Memory is one of the best-looking
Concentration-style games we've seen..."
  http://www.artplus.hr/adapps/eng/memory.htm

Our flagship product is daytimer alike PIM, EasyNoter
that we offer in several variants from freeware to single
user licences of "PRO" versions. Each can be bought/
downloaded as a single license software product, or
can be purchased to serve as a promotional gift.
Depending on version we sell branded packages in range
from about $100 up to about $10,000.
  (http://www.TheBestPIM.com)

We are also offering Wallpaper Calendar Changer that,
to my greatest surprise didn't attract much interest
by companies though end users like it very much...
Wallpapers are among most wanted items on the net
anyway...

Back to your screensaver question.

Though I can't offer any numbers, I've heard of some
successfull campaigns that included screensavers,
launched by Budweiser for instance.

If nothing else, some huge offline companies are finally
entering the online/desktop advertising arena.

Neven Prasnikar
artplus_at_artplus.hr
Art Plus Marketing & Publishing
http://www.software-adspecialties.com/
http://www.artplus.hr



Received on Thu Jul 05 2001 - 10:58:29 CDT