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April 26, 2005
What Happened to Oprah 1.0? - Chicken Suits and Freedonia
From what digging I managed to do, which wasn't much, it seems that Opera just decided that they didn't want to rename the browser. There was discussion about a name change, which was first suggested by Haavard (I think, there might have been something earlier), and later "confirmed", but I can only assume nothing came of it. The Oprah thing I probably first saw here. Oh well, it was funny while it lasted.
Who else gets the feeling that somewhere the marketing department had a list of marketing gimmicks titled "Ways to Create Buzz About Opera - For Free". Yeah ok, the new name is Opera 8, which makes me think they were really just out to stir up interest - carry as many news cycles as possible. And probably in particular to do so with their user base, which they likely view as an untapped source of evangelists - hence their promotion of Opera Boggling etc. Though I'm sure they genuinely must have wondered if re-branding would allow them to do an even bigger release - they seem to have done fine without it. Just as long as they didn't name it Sempr0n. Opera-Blank would have been too much like Mozilla Firefox.
I wonder if the chicken stunt from the West Wing Santos campaign would have been more fun. When you don't have the marketing clout to blitz the market, you do what punchy insurgencies do - you try to punch above your weight and find ways to endear yourself to a press that always loves an underdog, ensuring they megaphone your message for you with free press. And never loose an oppurtunity for free press - especially by being funny. 2 Slashdot headlines for the price of the Opera CEO getting into a wetsuit and some pretty pictures is a pretty good deal.
Posted by subtitles at April 26, 2005 2:50 PM | Opera Boggling
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