- Where Did the Idea Come From?
- Reusing Your Ideas
- A Head-Bobbing Experience
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A Head-Bobbing Experience
One day I was trying to think up a new viral Web site for Rocket 15 to launch. I got up from my desk and walked around the office. Eventually I came to the desk of one of my co-workers. He was working on an illustration of a hula girl. He was using the art from one of those "head bobbers" that sits on your dash or rear window of a car. A light bulb went off in my head: I thought, why not use this idea and create Flash-animated screen savers with bobbing heads?
The next thing I knew, ScreenBobbers.com was born. Within two weeks, we had more than 20 downloadable screen savers for both the PC and the Mac. Some of our characters include Howard Stern, Pamela Anderson, N*SYNC, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Bill Clinton, and various others. The site is up and running, and we've had thousands of people download our ScreenBobbers.
The trick here was to create a Flash-animated character for each ScreenBobber. The Flash ActionScripting that we created was random, so that enabled us to use the same code for all the animated figures on the site. We were able to knock out the illustrated figures quickly. Once everything was in place, we promoted the site through EMAZING.com. Within a week of its release, it was the Strange Site of the Day on Yahoo Internet Life. Between these two companies, we were getting some serious exposure, traffic, and downloads.
We now have a cool Web site that's getting lots of traffic and is building a buzz on the Net. My next goal was to go after morning-show radio DJs to promote the site. This audience was huge, and they are always looking for something funky or silly to do or talk about. So why not give it to them on a silver platter? All I had to do was create personalized animated ScreenBobbers of the DJs. This would feed their egos but would also give them an interesting story to tell their listening audience. Some of the DJs that we included on the ScreenBobbers site were Howard Stern, ManCow, and John Boy and Billy. (John Boy and Billy have their ScreenBobber posted on their home page, http://www.thebigshow.com.)
Our goal with this site was to attract and drive traffic to our Web sites while building on the EMAZING.com database of new users by increasing registration for that site's products. Needless to say, the site has been a huge success. We've received lots of free press, and lots of people have come to the site to download a ScreenBobber.
So, remember to push your limits of creativity and excellence to a higher level. In doing so, you'll gain notoriety for being an innovative and progressive thinker. Keep your brain open—who knows? Maybe you'll give birth to something that is brilliantly wacky.