Extreme marketing idea?

[Krilus]

I just had my web designer/marketing pitch something to me, I thought I'd bring it up here to straw hat a little bit

Basically you mail a blank disk with a sticky note (printed on it) saying "all the requested documents you asked for..."

have it addressed to someone at the office, someone you wanna target
then they will be curious and insert the disk. a video will start playing and the screen will go blue with a error message

Then it will change to your message... something like "you are lucky that this unknown software didnt make your entire system crash or encrypt the entire computer everytime you introduce softwear on your sustem you are at serious risk... bla bla bla" educate them and leave ur contact details with a solution.

Thoughts/ideas?

 

[Mick]

I think people are busy and won't appreciate what they see as having their time wasted by some practical joker. Either that, or they'll realise that they haven't actually asked you for any documents and haven't got a clue who you (the sender) are. Then they'll put the thing in the bin.

 

[jmitservices]

More than likely that they will blame your 'software' on some problem that might develop at a later date!

Bad Idea.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Bad idea. People don't like being "had."

 

[Steve202]

Good god that's a very bad idea. You'll piss a lot of people off doing that.

 

[nlinecomputers]

This is like a waiter pretending to hock a loogie into your meal and then asking you to be generous with your tip.

What happens if they get a real virus after they have seen your prank? You'll get blamed. You'll get arrested for cyber vandalism.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

Stay far away!!!!!

If someone did that to me the first thing that would be broken is any trust relationship.

 

[cypress]

No way! Not a good idea at all.

 

[WindsorComputerRepair]

You might as well just actually install silent malware and then conveniently target them with advertising and get actual work.
Yes, that's very very very very illegal and a bad idea, and if you get caught say goodbye to your business,
But in the eyes of the law it's likely to be on par with the prank.
They're not going to get a jury or judge of IT techs for you when you get sued, they'll get a know nothing judge and a group of scared housewives as the jury who don't see the difference between the two.
Good luck, see you on the news.

 

[Krilus]

Thanks all,appreciate the feedback.
Definitely not going to pursue this further

 

[Markverhyden]

Yep, really, really bad idea. The problem with marketing people these days is many go for the outright "shock" value. With little thought to what the aggregate response will be.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I agree whole heartedly with the others. I think its one of the most stupidest ideas ever known to mankind and IT.

Trust it to be a marketer to come up with such an idea.

If you do this, each and every problem, irrespective of hardware or software, on every machine which had this cd will be blamed on you and your company.

Bug bye, to any and all positive reputation you have built up over the years, as it will be gone, faster than the speed of light.

 

[Mike McCall]

I am absolutely the very worst you'll ever see at marketing, but even I know this is a bad idea.

 

[glennd]

Oh come on guys, no need to beat about the bush, just come out and say what you really think.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Ok Glenn, brilliant idea.

Wonder why no one else has thought about it.

<< starting to burn 1000 cd's, sending out to everyone I know, who doesn't respond to emails and phone calls.

 

[Morrison5891]

I agree, it's a very bad idea.

A week later their computer crashes.... who do they blame? Yep, YOU!

 

[TechLady]

Points for creativity, though.

 

[Christopher Lucas]

Like others said sounds way too dangerous.

 

[Thedog]

Scare tactics are just the lowest form of marketing you can do. Sure, I think it might be needed for teenager etc to show the effects of smoking and similar but for adults they should be able to make their own decisions based on factual information rather than scares.

 

[oldtech]

I think how bad of an idea this is has been covered but one other point needs to be made - you need to dump that marketing guy as his thinking is so far wrong as to be borderline criminal. God knows what if he decides your website should start doing something similar on a drive by basis? Wrong headed as can be and you really should not associate with him further.