Subject: How Synopsys bought crowds at DAC for under $3 per person

I must tip my hat to the Synopsys Corporate Marketing weasils at DAC.  For
under $3 per person, they managed to buy people's personal email address,
phone number, company address and even their personal time at DAC!

Here's what they did.

Before DAC they went to Best Buy and purchased 62 Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray
players for $14,260.  Each customer who sat through a SNPS demo at DAC got
a raffle ticket that was (here's the clever weasil mind at work) GOOD FOR
THE WHOLE DAY.  Then every 30 minutes, at the top and bottom of the hour,
from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM a drawing for 1 Blu-ray player was held -- with
the added weasil gotcha being that YOU HAD TO BE PRESENT at the drawing!

The result was every 30 minutes the front of the Synopsys booth looked like:

        

It created the illusion that the crowds were gaga over SNPS tools -- which
is one of Corporate Marketing's key missions.  It's good for sales and it's
good for SNPS shares because it impresses the visiting Wall Street analysts.

And the gravy side effect of this Manipulation Theater is that for every
minute a customer waits by the Synopsys booth for his ticket to be drawn is
a minute this customer is NOT at a rival EDA vendor's booth!  Sweet!

Exactly how much did this perpetual crowd cost Synopsys?  DAC had 5,311
attendees (not counting the booth staff).  The 62 Blu-ray players cost a
total $14,260.  So that's $14,260 / 5,311 == $2.68 per person!

As I said in the opening of this Wiretap, I must tip my hat to the Synopsys
Corporate Marketing weasils for this stunt.  Machiavelli would be proud.

    - John Cooley
      DeepChip.com                               Holliston, MA