Someone I met at LTPact won $100 from a 5-cent slot machine. I said it sounded like great ROI, and three different people corrected me at the same time. Gambling and ROI, I was told, just DON'T go hand in hand!
The folks at The Planet must gamble as little as I do, because they've launched a casino-themed promotional campaign on the heels of their SMB ROI study. Double down with RAM, they say, and hit the jackpot with unmetered bandwidth.
But when you double down, aren't you placing a higher bet for the possibility of winning more - with the understanding that you might leave the table empty handed? And as for hitting the jackpot, doesn't that happen only once in a blue moon? GoingToVegas.com estimates your odds to be 1 in 27,000, while LasVegasAdvisor.com says the probability could be as low as 1 in 134 million. Yikes. Would you want a data center provider with such a track record??
Back during my EV1 days, CEO Robert Marsh once took our whole management team out to Vegas for a weekend. (Everyone else played Pai Gow Poker while I shopped for shoes.) Maybe The Planet should organize a similar field trip to help its marketing team steer clear of red flag raising metaphors?
ThePlanet's current marketing strategy is a general disaster, primarily because the website itself is the most clunky, uninviting, uninformative, badly designed website in the industry. Compare SoftLayer.com and ThePlanet.com, there is no comparison, one is easy on the eyes, intuitive, very usable and jam packed full of every tiny server detail and one is the complete opposite. I mean look at TP's server details, there are a few lines before you hit the order page and the order pages don't give hardly any server data at all either. You would think with the amount they must be paying for all their top wall street pleasing VP's they could at least hire a decent web designer and marketing people...
You're right, their promotions are entertaining, but the money they're putting into marketing to get traffic to the site is down the drain until the site is re-designed.
Posted by: Nick | July 22, 2007 at 06:02 PM
I think the metaphor is OK. When you are in a situation in blackjack where basic strategy says to "double down", it is only in a scenario in which you have a significant advantage over the house. Over the long run, the house edge on blackjack will always win, but a double down situation is very favorable for the player. When played properly, blackjack afford the house a 1-2% edge over the player. I enjoy gambling for entertainment and feel the 1-2% long term house edge is worth it for me for the entertainment value. Of course, always go into the casino with a set amount of money that you basically are giving up and expect to lose all of it. This way you are never disappointed, and sometimes come out with a big chunk of change.
I think if they said "hit the jackpot" with the planet, the metaphor would stink. Blackjack players love every oportunity to "double down", so I think the metaphor is fair.
On the other hand, you should not be gambling with your hosting / server vendor though!
Posted by: John N. | July 22, 2007 at 06:02 PM