
Why our product went viral in Brazil for the wrong reasons - makalumhenders
http://www.dafacto.com/2013/03/22/rego-goes-viral-in-brazil/
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objclxt
Since the article text itself doesn't mention exactly _why_ the name is so bad
- Rego, the name of the product, is slang for ass crack in Portuguese. I can
sort of understand why you wouldn't want to put that in the post itself, but
it's also a little annoying to have to watch a video to find out _why_ it went
viral.

~~~
richardv
I enjoyed watching the video since if I had read your comment, it would have
spoiled the entire reason why this post is pretty hilarious..... Finding out
the context of a "joke" before the joke being told is kind of a spoiler.

Anyway, watch the video if you can, it's worth the minute.

~~~
objclxt
I do get that, but lots of people either don't want to watch a video or can't,
for various reasons.

I hope this wasn't a problem for too many people, because (tongue in cheek
here) I'm _positive_ everyone reads the articles first before coming to read
the comments.

~~~
serf
I didn't watch the video on the principle that I hate people baiting me into
watching a video. Thanks for posting a synopsis. I read the comments in this
thread just for that reason.

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makalumhenders
What Richard said is why I didn't mention the meaning in the title; it'd be a
spoiler! Anyway, Gizmodo in Brazil covered the app in an article entitled,
"This is not a HANDS-ON review!" which got thousands of RTs and Facebook
likes. We then responded with that video, and they followed up with a second
article -- glad to see we were taking the news in good humor!

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rafski
As someone who never understood the appeal of foursquare/gowalla kind of apps,
I do like this one — saving locations just for myself and sharing only if I
really want to. Well done using media attention for your benefit, you're
handling the "controversy" well. Selling apps is a tough game and every user
counts, good luck out there.

~~~
makalumhenders
Thanks rafski, yep that was exactly why we created the app -- the appeal of
something Gowalla-like, but without the social part.

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rurounijones
Oh god, the video where you explain the meaning is hilarious, I am in tears
here.

I am glad you have seen the funny site of things.

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lsc
Man, they handled it well. The guy got the low-brow humor without acting
particularly low-brow, which is a difficult thing to do. I wonder if.. they
planned it? That would have been brilliant.

The thing is, it's probably one of those "only funny once" things, so I doubt
that the next company trying it would be so successful. (That, and the
original company, man, if they were planning it? they were /subtle/ - and that
made it way better. It's totally believable as an accident. that'd be a
difficult thing to follow up on.)

~~~
fragsworth
It will probably happen again, except the next time it will be intentional,
and it will be successful in another country. Most people don't even hear
about this stuff.

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alenart
The video is currently not loading for me, so the below is just an observation
on the linguistics of these situations not a troll to downgrade the humor
contained herein.

This isn't the first time a brand has had to rethink its name to adjust to the
local language. The Ford Pinto was re-dubbed when it entered Brazil because
pinto in Portuguese is a word reserved for the male anatomy. It also happens
the other way: the Nissan 350Z from the 80s was called the Fair Lady in Japan,
which would likely never have resonated with its target demographic in the
U.S.

~~~
samatman
The Chevy Nova is another oft-cited example; "No va" means "it doesn't go" in
Spanish.

~~~
itafroma
That story is apocryphal[1]. To use the example Snopes used, "nova" in Spanish
doesn't mean "doesn't go" any more than "notable" means "no table" in English.

[1]: <http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp>

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a_p
This has got to be one of the best (or worst, depending on your point of view)
product names since the Windows phone named "Lumia". Lumia means prostitute in
Spanish. I've always wondered how Nokia and MS missed that.

EDIT: I've just learned that "Siri" sounds like a word, 尻, that means "ass" in
Japanese. [1]. So I suppose this is the funniest name since Siri.

[1]<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394201,00.asp>

~~~
super-serial
Well the Siri name makes sense considering how it treats Japanese people:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiU8GPlsZqE>

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makalumhenders
Thanks everybody. Our first reaction was, "Oh what a disaster!" but then we
thought, "Nothing we can do now, and it is pretty funny so let's just roll
with it!" BTW, Rego is really being well received — it seems like a lot of
people (us included!) needed something Gowalla-like but without the social
part.

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soneca
Yes, the Gizmodo article is hilarious!! I saw it shared on my Facebook
timeline a lot!

For Gizmodo it is an absolute win - lots of sharing. For Rego, I am sure it is
a short-term win. But at the long-term there are a lot of challenges to make
the transition from novelty to consolidate, real value delivering app.

My 2 cents would be, keep the branding as a purpousely funny. Rego is a funny
bad word, but not one that a newspaper can't publish. It's not that strong.
Also it is very well known, but, at the same time, is not that commonly used
so people won't associate it to a brand.

~~~
soneca
Just more 2 cents on this boring Saturday morning. If you launch it in
portuguse and/or for Android, you should a great launch paying a tweet or post
at <https://twitter.com/kibeloco> (they are very big here, and they are the
funniest site by far). Another huge player on funny content is
<http://www.youtube.com/user/portadosfundos>.

Just some tips if you decided to invest in this branding

~~~
olh
Do not go with kibeloco. They are known for stealing content. There is even a
verb invented to describe stealing online content thanks to them: "kibar".

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zdw
So what is Orkut slang for in Portuguese?

~~~
soneca
None. It is a completely strange word for us, our words normally doesn't end
with a consonant (never with a 't') and we don't even use 'k' in our alphabet.
I guess not even Google knows why it went so viral here. A proof of that is
that now Facebook is by far the most used social network here (Google didn't
even try to make Orkut -> GooglePlus transition, I don't know why).

~~~
Evbn
Orkut was something like 5 years old before G+ was built. It has such a
different social/sharing/privacy model, so it would be hard to convert, and it
is only a major player in one country.

~~~
soneca
Ok, so "hard to convert" is a good enough reason to just ignore 40 million
very active users.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
See also: Google Reader.

~~~
soneca
People spent lots of time at Orkut pages, not just using a protocol through
other apps. There is advertising in there. And social networking is a business
goal for them.

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ehmuidifici
Yesterday I mentioned that app to my work colleagues (here in Brazil), all
they said was: "Now I can put my finger on your Rego and open it. Also, we
will see all your photos stored in Rego, and all your shared anotations".

Everyone laughed so hard that the app itself didn't matter anymore.

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wubbfindel
Very funny. Reminds me of the Chevrolet Nova myth story.

<http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp>

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thiagoperes
I'm Brazilian, and yes it's very very funny.

Also, check out <http://www.habbo.com/>, which means the same thing (ass
crack).

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davidkatz
Amongst other things, this is a great lesson for how naming can affect mass
market marketing.

As a product guy and general geek, I want to believe that naming doesn't
matter. It's the product and the value it creates that counts. I'm
increasingly learning that that's not entirely true. Having a great product is
critical, but you also need to market it, and a name that evokes emotional
responses helps.

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stcredzero
That's a brilliant idea. I mean simply bookmarking locations. It's also a
brilliant idea to go viral in a large industrial country because of Beavis and
Butthead aesthetics. The problem is, if I did that on purpose, my productivity
would go down just because of the giggling.

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cjstewart88
This is awesome, the video made me smile, glad you guys have a sense of humor!
Grats on the launch!

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xanadohnt
Awkward video.

