The Pico Underground
An opportunity to capture the imagination of the greater tech culture by creating a pseudo company blog.
CLIENT:
Microvision
DATE:
Dec 2008
PROJECT:
Take Advantage of the Moment
Sometimes external events don’t coincide with internal planning. This was the case as we brought the world’s first laser-based pico projector to market. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was calling. That only happens once a year. Should we wait for an entire year? Significant challenges on the supply chain and engineering side were still being worked through. It simply wasn’t feasible to “just go faster.” As Fred Brooks schooled us in his book, The Mythical Man-Month, “The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.”
We made the decision that we’d exhibit at CES and MacWorld, too. Though we would have products to demonstrate and even have first-generation retail packaging to show, we were not ready to sell. In spite of this, we wanted to generate excitement and build buzz. The Pico Underground Blog helped us do just that.
The Big Idea: The Pico Underground
The character, RGB, loves technology and his role at Microvision. He feels compelled to run experiments and document the results to share with the world. A handheld laser-based Pico Projector is a new technology ready to meet an unsuspecting world. RGB brings it. His exploits are shared on his personal blog, The Pico Underground.
SHOWWX Experiment: Brew Surfing
Collaborate to Scale and Gain Insights
At the time of this project, my team was already running full speed, creating an interactive product website, OEM and consumer-facing collateral, retail packaging, and a technology animation to show how PicoP technology works. All of that plus planning for a couple of dozen people to attend CES and MacWorld on the show floor and private suite. The Pico Underground Blog would not have happened without the great creative insights and flawless execution by Jim Copacino and his team at C+F.
