NEW YORK--In the press room at the Web 2.0 Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center here, there are a ton of fliers, stickers, and press kits lying around for us reporters and bloggers to peruse.
It's kind of hard for any one of them to stand out. Unless you're like collaboration software start-up Octopz, which we reviewed last year.
The company's strategy: Leave out some bright turquoise-and-green stuffed octopi, free for the taking. No corny company logos, no attached pitch, just a cute stuffed sea creature with a flash drive press kit tied around its neck with ribbon. They were way too adorable for me to say no. And it might actually serve its PR purpose of keeping Octopz in this reporter's memory.
But even if you aren't really into cute stuffed toys, there are plenty of uses for an octopus. I was sitting next to ReadWriteWeb contributor Blake Robinson in the press room, and he said he thought it might make a nice toy for his dog. Another reporter told me that maybe he'd pick one up for his kid.
And props to Octopz for aesthetics: the flash drive tied around the octopus' neck was lime-green and turquoise to match the color scheme.
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