Screenshots of The Venice Project
I think I blogged before about The Venice Project (www.theveniceproject.com) and there are now some screenshots and a details report on the beta version on Om Malik’s blog (see reference at foot of this post).
There are several things I like about TVP, quite apart from the software itself, and they are that these guys have been hugely successful with both Kazaa and SKype, so they know a thing of two about getting a ground-breaking idea to market.
Take a look at the website, plain, simple, no bullshit, and speaks to us in a very natural language. There is a view that i subscribve to that says people/consumers/us are getting desensitized to clever marketing stuff, spin, and heavy branding. Todays cutting edge marketing is simple, clear, humble, plain english, and open. NOtice how they speak openly about the challenges they face and overcome (instead of thinking, “oh shit, we cant tell the people THAT”, they openly discuss the challenges).
They say there is no such thing as “The New Man”, that the New Man is just the Old Man who has learnt that he has to get a bit more in touch with his feminine side if he wants to bed the girls. Now that sounds a bit manipulative, but so be it, if it works, do it. Perhaps, similarly, there is no such thing as The New Marketing, its just the Old Marketing that has realised it has to ’show itself’ as being more low-tech and less ‘marketing’ to cut through.
I say if thats what TVP is doing then fair play to them. At the end of the day, if you want to be in business you have to be a mercenary bastard, and why not. Just that these days you have to also be a bit more open if you want to win the herats and minds of the cynical consumers, like us.
Anyway, review of TVP and screenshots are here