Plugged In

Not exactly Che Guevara

A surefire recipe for integrating high-tech and high art.

Local software developer Covasoft Inc. understood the danger in the guerrilla marketing campaign it set up last week to win new customers from among those attending Vignette Corp.'s annual Vignette Village customer conference.

In April, an IBM Corp. publicity stunt caused an uproar after Big Blue's public relations firm spray-painted -- instead of using chalk - - "peace, love and Linux" on sidewalks in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago.

So Covasoft, working with local advertising firm The Ad Ranch, made sure its chalked slogan ("Know it all. Now") would wash off and added a high-end tour bus that shuttled people to the Vignette gathering, a string of billboards and a boat cruise on Lake Austin. Even night-time "stealth postering" went smoothly, said Pat Colpitts, vice president of brand marketing.

The idea wasn't to steal customers from Vignette, which doesn't provide the same type of product as Covasoft. Rather, Covasoft executives said the campaign was done simply to take advantage of the hundreds of industry people attending the Vignette conference.

No word on whether Covasoft won over singer Lyle Lovett, the high- dollar performer of choice at Austin high-tech events, who was Vignette's closing act.

Plugged In was written by Elizabeth Goldman.

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