Just in time for Valentine's Day...




Courtesy of the ACME Heart Maker

So it was the day before the Super Bowl and I'm checking to see what has accumulated on the TiVo overnight. Lo and behold, we have a message and a new option on our menu - well, cool. In addition to the Joe Montana TiVo commercial, there's bloopers from the commercial as well as a three-minute piece explaining what TiVo is that you can show to all of your friends when they come over to watch The Big Game.

I'm thinking, "This is just bizarre."

A few days later, what should come in the mail but a letter from the good folks at TiVo explaining that we're valued customers and we should be sure to tell all of our friends about how wonderful TiVo is, and hey, here's a nifty TiVo logo static sling sticker to help you start conversations about how wonderful TiVo is.

I'm thinking, "This is getting stranger." Until I realize what's going on...

What we have here is a classic example of viral marketing. TiVo knows it has a good thing. Its customers know they have a good thing. The trouble is, everyone else doesn't know they can get a good thing (thanks to linnaeus for that link). Realizing that traditional advertising methods don't work - I recall seeing several TiVo ads over the past few years but never got a grasp on what the actual product was - TiVo changed advertising agencies and is focusing more on getting its educated customers out to spread the gospel of TiVo. I think there's parallels to be drawn here between TiVo and Linux, and, to a lesser degree, TiVo and Apple as well. Certainly in the case of Linux, it's the word of mouth that does the marketing and the customers that do the evangelization. In many ways, the case for Apple is that it's David versus Goliath and for TiVo it's the consumer versus the programming giants. And everyone always wants to cheer for the underdog.

Which is why I may yet put up that sticker on my car or window at work :-)