The Perfect #SXSW Troll [#geekgirl]
Like any major hybrid cultural event that jumps the shark and decides to evolve into what’s essentially a hipsterised parody of itself, #SXSW has been inverting from its original incarnation for years and sequentially de-evolving into a muddled coolhunting mess. So when AllThingsD reported on this glorious play containing yams and oily-networking-sycophants, it just had to be applauded:
In the weeks leading up to SXSW, a series of mysterious packages started being sent out to companies of import and some journalists. The contents included a set of instructions and one single, neatly wrapped object: A yam.
Those who received the yams in the mail — from “Yamtrader.com” were pitched on a new startup that, basically, sold itself as “an online marketplace for yam enthusiasts and traders.” It was absurd.
Yet attendees were encouraged to bring their yams to South By, where they could be traded in for a $50 AmEx gift card.
What they found when they reached South By on Sunday morning wasn’t a booth full of potato lovers. It was Tri-Net.
What is Tri-Net? It’s a 25-year-old cloud services company that deals with HR, payroll and IT backend issues for smaller startups, who may have a good idea for a company, but have little backend business acumen. It’s pretty big, too; it’s home to more than 1,500 employees, and works with upwards of 7,000 clients.I get it… IT and payroll services are about as exciting as attending an enterprise conference after taking a Xanax. So you have to resort to guerilla, somewhat unconventional marketing tactics to get noticed on occasion.
But Tri-Net did them one better. Theirs is a sort of meta-commentary on startup marketing on the whole, a tongue-in-cheek gesture on the stupidity of some single-serving companies that are appearing out of Silicon Valley these days — much less with millions of dollars in venture capital funding. By contrast, something difficult to market may prove more useful; it’s why the hottest topic in the Valley these days is indeed the enterprise (even if it is boring as hell).
A number of folks were taken in by it, with mixed reactions. “We have gotten feedback in both directions,” Breitweiser said. “Some thought it was really funny, while some were upset that we were fooling them.”