Take a guy who describes himself as looking “like a hobbit, especially after I broke my nose shooting a fight-scene in a student film“, stick him in the middle of nowhere with nothing more than a pay phone, and then publish his Skype number to the world so they can call him 24/7 and see if he answers…
They call it the “Live Phone Box Experiment” and it is the latest promotional stunt by Skype to get people to trial their service – and frankly I think it is quite smart. What I believe you have here is the cross over from Reality TV to what I like to call “True Reality Marketing” – the method by which you prove your product by interacting with your prospects via a promotion that requires them to use it.
I did try to call Rob, unfortunately with no luck, but I get the feeling I may have caught him (or not) while he is sleeping (I believe he might be in Europe and it would have been about 1am when I tried), or maybe it’s just that the campaign is a massive success and this guy is just talking non-stop…
I’ll keep you up to date as I continue to try…
Skype and The Viral Factory launched this live campaign with the aim to promote awareness of Skype’s cheap international calls to mobile phones and landlines. Rob Cavazos (the guy camped out by the phone) fortunately speaks several languages and will be camped out for the next 10 days taking as many calls as he can day and night!
While I think it’s a great concept, I think it may have been a better one if you could also talk to him “Skype-to-Skype” using the same phone box, but during his daylight hours (so the poor bugger can get some sleep). It would not only be a great way to demonstrate to non-users how easy Skype is to use with a real live person – in oppose to the “Echo Test” you get when you first set up your account - but it could have also demonstrated how effective the call forward feature of the service is.
Anyway – if you are a Skype user and have the credits feel free to call by visiting http://phoneboxexperiment.com/ and if you get him say hi from me and tell him I’ve been trying to call…
