Sonic Foundry Stands Out at COMDEX

With 230,000 attendees and thousands of vendors, COMDEX is the busiest trade show in the world. How does a relatively small software vendor lift itself above the crowd and communicate its message to all of the show's attendees despite the incredible noise level? That was the quandary facing Sonic Foundry (AMEX: SFO), producer of the ACID[TM] family of audio software programs. The company received this year's "Pushie" award for Best COMDEX Marketing for their answer.

"I've always noticed that people look at other people before they read signs, billboards, or banners," comments Roy Elkins, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Sonic Foundry. "We decided we would have a promotional campaign built around live people, and make them so visible and so provocative that they could not be missed."

Realizing that all of the show's attendees fly into the event, Elkins began the campaign at the Las Vegas airport, where actors, playing the role of limousine drivers, held up ACID signs and shouted out the name Sonic Foundry. In the baggage claim area, rock star look-alikes carried instrument cases labeled with Sonic Foundry, Sonic Foundry's booth number, and phrases such as "ACID kills polka on contact." Further increasing Sonic Foundry's visibility, the actors laid the cases down on the luggage carousels so arriving passengers would see them while they waited for their own bags.

That was just the warm up. Outside the show's entrance were picketers, dressed in 60's-style hippie outfits, pretending to protest against Sonic Foundry. "ACID, the end of music as you know it," read one picketer's sign. A hippie with a bull horn yelled out "ACID is evil! Go to the Sonic Foundry booth and tell them!"

Of course, at the Sonic Foundry booth, where the Company was giving away tee shirts and "light" versions of the ACID software, the staffers pretended to be surprised at the protest. "Getting people to the booth was important," notes Elkins. "But once we got people to the booth, we also had to make sure that the quality of the presentation lived up to expectations. We had top-quality presenters and top quality demonstrations, and once we got people in the booth, we wowed them." Needless to say, the booth was packed beyond capacity for every presentation.

Culminating the activities, Sonic Foundry sponsored a party complete with such music notables as legendary guitarist and rock and roll hall of fame inductee Joe Walsh. Recording artist Doug Beck, who remixed Celine Dion's pop hit "Titanic," opened the show utilizing ACID with a live demonstration of music creation.

The results? At least 250,000 repeat impressions and a substantial increase in industry awareness.

"We achieved our marketing goal for less than half what we would have had to pay with ordinary media," says Elkins. "We got our message across more effectively than the industry giants and stayed within our marketing budget. Our biggest challenge will be following up on all of the new business generated by this promotion. It's a helluva problem to have. Just wait 'till next year."