Web Designs from Scratch, a small British web design/consultancy firm, has hit on an amazingly bright idea to promote their firm, build their brand, bring in business, and just simply do something really cool: 50 Redesigns from Scratch.
It reminds me of One Thousand Paintings: the painter who is painting a thousand paintings (naturally), of the numbers 1 to 1000.
50 Redesigns from Scratch is genius. They’ll take 50 sites, redesign them, blog about them, write about them in a PDF book which will be available for download, and also write about them in an actual book which can be purchased. They’ve already got a mention on Digg with more than 1100 Diggs (including one from me), and other links are sure to follow.
The real genius is that this project, which is from a “company” which is so non-corporate as to have a Paypal donate button on their home page, is also going to be a money-maker. That’s right: this is not just a publicity stunt or a goodwill gesture:
We can only include a limited number of sites in the book. If you would like your site to be included, we’d love to hear from you.
– A one-off fee of just £725 (US$1,250) gets you:
– A professional redesign of your site’s home page by Ben Hunt
– Your site included in the book, and featured on this site, where it will be seen by like half a million people – guaranteeing great exposure
– All graphics files of the new design you need to help you implement your new design
At one and the same time, they’ve:
- made this an artificially limited opportunity – hence making it more attractive in some intangibly human way
- made this an event – which makes it much more interesting for companies or bloggers to buy in
- promised clients something Joe’s Graphics down the corner (or even a top-flight $150/hour downtown agency) can’t offer: publicity
- plus, as you can see by their first design, a simply great re-design for their website
What a concept – great marketing/branding/business development coup, all in one. Not to mention how much fun this should be!
[tags] marketing, buzz, viral, web2.0, webdesign, scratchmedia, web design from scratch, john koetsier [/tags]