

Guerilla Marketing : Source code on the Business Card - luckystrike
http://www.pluggd.in/2008/09/guerilla-marketing-tips-source-code-on-the-business-card

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froo
The best Guerilla Marketing thing I do, is ensure my business card makes it
into any book/magazine that I can get my hands on.

Whenever I'm down at the news agent, I ensure I slip my business card into any
Magazine that a small business owner might be interested in (Time, BRW,
MyBusiness) and I do the same at a bookstore I visit whenever I'm there.

I would do the same for libraries, but I figure that it would be a waste.

This has actually been the most cost effective (and profitable) thing I've
done and have generated a good amount of business out of it as it literally
gets my business card into the hands of people who might find use for my
services.

~~~
eru
Might also work for getting dates. Though you probably should not use a
business card.

A friend of mine has observed that using blank business cards generate a far
higher callback rate for him than preprinted cards. (Of course he writes his
number etc on the blank card as he hands them out.)

~~~
froo
_A friend of mine has observed that using blank business cards generate a far
higher callback rate for him than preprinted cards. (Of course he writes his
number etc on the blank card as he hands them out.)_

What industry is your friend in out of interest? I think that how ones
business card is presented says a lot about that person, for example a person
who is into design might seem strange having a plain standard white boring
business card.

Similarly a person who has a typically white collar job (accountant etc) would
do well with a more classic or professional look card than something with
vivid colour.

Just looking through my business card file now, I don't remember half of who
these people are, but when I come across a fantastic card I have that instant
recognition of who the person is, the card acts as a visual cue.

Completely unrelated, but have a look at some of these if you've never seen
this, it's a photoset of fantastic business cards on Flickr.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/7205759410438...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/)

 _Might also work for getting dates. Though you probably should not use a
business card._

That depends on the woman I guess as there are no doubt some women out there
that would or wouldn't date a man depending on his job title (and the implied
financial status that goes with it)

EDIT - actually still looking through my file I came across one of my uncle's
business cards I got my hands on several years ago. His company is not
glamorous one by any stretch of the imagination (his factory makes custom
wooden crates/boxes for shipping) but his card instantly stands out. It is
actually made out of a thin sheet of pine which was then printed onto and I
think that it is not only appropriate given his customer base, but it's the
kind of card that you remember and I don't think too many people end up
throwing them away.

~~~
eru
My friend works as a freelance developer. He always carries both set of cards.
The blank ones are not only standard boring white --- they are literally
entirely blank.

~~~
froo
Interesting indeed. I probably couldn't do that as my handwriting is terrible.

Bouncing off that for a second though, one of the more interesting ideas I saw
were business cards for a second hand store.

What they essentially did was get other people's business cards and literally
cross out the contact information and replace it with their own.

~~~
eru
Very thematic, indeed. Do you have any more information? Does it annoy the
crossed out people?

~~~
froo
No more info & I honestly don't know if it annoyed the recycle-ee's as it was
something I saw in passing.

Sorry about that.

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gruseom
Cool card. The code not so much... e.g. anybody notice the comments?

    
    
      nc = new NetConnection(); // New Connection
      mic = Microphone.get(); // Configure Microphone
    

Oh dear.

~~~
eru
They should have written it in K:

b:4>@[n;&0n=n:+/_sqr 50{c+(-/x _x;2_ /x)}/c:+,/(-1.5+2 _(!w)%w),/:\:-1+2_
(!w)%w:200;:;4];`mic 6:"P4\n",(5:2#w),"\n",_ci 2_sv'-1 8#,/+(2#w)#b

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jacobbijani
How is that guerilla marketing?

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oofoe
Check out Paul Heckbert's ray tracing business card at
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ph/> (you'll need to load the page, then search for
"business card"). The files themselves are chunks of PostScript code -- they
can be viewed with GhostScript or Illustrator.

