We all know that Drupal is an amazing framework for building the next generation of web and mobile applications. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not know this...yet.
To fulfill its mission to “Communicate the benefits of the Drupal software,” the Drupal Association is launching a new Marketing and Branding Committee to collaborate on the creation of marketing materials and tell the world about our amazing project and community. Having a marketing committee inside the Drupal Association means we can address, promote and support everything from DrupalCon to Drupal.org.
We are looking for members, volunteers and a chairperson for a new Marketing and Communication Committee.
Given the importance of this committee, we want to reach out to the wider community and invite more people to participate. We want a committee that can represent the global community. Geographic diversity is the key reason the board appointed me as interim chair with a mission to make this new committee better known in the Drupal community and to find the right person to chair the committee. The job description for the chair of the marketing committee is now online. I will reach out to potential candidates for this position. I'm also open to hearing proposals. After the chair has been selected, that person will then choose members for the committee.
In order to get things moving the Drupal Association board will choose the chair as soon as possible. We are accepting proposals until Sunday, 3rd of June.
I will post regular updates about this process to the DA news blog until the new chair has been chosen. Most up-to-date information will be posted on my twitter account.
I would like to thank the marketing task force for their excellent work so far! The work on the charter was led by Ben Finklea. Other members of the task force included Ron Pruett, Steve Purkiss, Geoff Bock, Amy Cham, Marta Betts, Betsy Ensley, Doug Vann, George DeMet and Dave Terry.
Comments
Fantastic news! If we're
Fantastic news!
If we're interested in volunteering for this, how do we go about doing so?
I will contact you
Mike, I am the point of contact for now. There is no formal application process. Just let me know a bit about your background and how would you like to help (what kind of tasks, how much time you would have, what's your previous marketing experience...). In early June a permanent chairperson will be chosen and he or she will then take over coordinating the marketing.
I can he contacted by email, vesa.palmu at mearra.com or twitter http://twitter.com/wesku
Thank you, Vesa! I'm very
Thank you, Vesa! I'm very excited about the chance that we have to make a dent in the Universe with Drupal. This committee is a huge step in the right direction and formalizes an idea that has been on the minds of leaders in this community for a long time. Admittedly, forming the committee is the easy part. The hard part is yet to come with the creation of a strategy that excites people about this community and the software that it is organized around. As with the software side of Drupal, Drupal marketing will be created and funded by those who are motivated to solve specific marketing problems that are in front of them. With this committee, it is my vision to 1. create a place that is as easy to contribute to the marketing of Drupal as it is to submit a patch to a module and, 2. develop a singular definition of the value that is Drupal so that it can be easily and quickly communicated with anyone.
There are a lot of things that will come after those two are accomplished. And, there are some things to do first. Specifically, we need more information about who is using Drupal now, who is making the web platform decision in the organizations that will be our adopters over the next 5 years, and what does Drupal have that will create preference over any other platform. In Denver, Dries showed a fantastic "wheel of features" comparing different CMSs. I would like to see the "wheel of CMS preference". What are our strengths and the strengths of our competitors? What makes us weak? What are our competitive advantages that no one else can claim? Etc. It is by understanding Drupal's market perception and our competitors that we can win the battles that we fight every day.
There are a lot of questions around all these things and it's great to know that we will be tackling them and other Drupal marketing projects in the very near future.
Excellent points
You have made some excellent points. In various discussion with developers and companies adopting Drupal, it is becoming clear that the decision makers are moving outside the boundaries of the IT department. With that in mind, we have to ensure the message of Drupal is appropriate for the new audience and that the message is unified. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the committee.
It sounds promising. Great
It sounds promising. Great news!
Exciting news!
It is great to see this initiative finally come to life after many years of discussions.
Denver was the tipping point where we had a packed BoF. Ben Finklea took the bull by the horns, brought everything together and finally happen. Just as he did with the recent Blue Drop Awards, Ben has a clear understanding of our community's do-ocracy approach to development.
I believe by establishing a community within the Association will help enormously in terms of making such initiatives as these which come from the community at large a far simpler process to support and grow over time.
I wish Ben success and thank everyone who has or wants to be involved and I look forward to getting things up and running.
+1 for Ben's efforts
+1 for Steve's comments and in particular for his recognition of Ben's efforts so far. I think if this is going to be successful, it will require someone with this kind of enthusiasm, passion and commitment to dedicate to this. I feel like we have to take a very critical view of the way Drupal is perceived outside our community and be diligent about working to improve upon that for the right audiences (CIOs, CTOs, CMOs, etc.) Ben understands this and I hope everyone who commits time to this initiative does too.
+1000
This is an unbelievably exciting initiative. I am incredibly stoked by the forward traction this committee is making towards advancing the marketing movement around Drupal. This committee is about generating recognition, better positioning, and centralizing resources to evangelize the collective strengths and benefits of Drupal. The success stories are growing by the day. In my home state of Georgia, the government is now realizing 4.6M dollars in total cost of ownership savings v. their incumbent, proprietary-based system. Why would other state agencies not want to take advantage of this? The truth is they would, but they probably do know about Drupal...yet. If more awareness is generated that Drupal provides these types of immense cost savings, not to mention being a much more flexible platform, we are only competing against ourselves.
Onward and upward, look out closed-code, proprietary CMSs!
Come on board
Where's Drupal going to be 1yr from today? What's the big news going to be at DrupalCon Portland?
The answers to those questions are entirely up to all of us; what we do, and where we take Drupal.
For years I've had conversation with many people in many places and we've all agreed that more has needed to be done in this area. I'm not going to make that case here because it's been made so well already. Now begins the time to roll up our sleeves and join the effort. Forming this committee is but a 1st step. This will be a success. I have no doubt about that. The question becomes HOW successful will we be.
This is going to be a TREMENDOUS Return On Investment.
We're excited about:
* Removing barriers.
* Busting myths.
* Equipping individuals and shops with marketing tools they can use to effectively communicate "Drupal" to a variety of audiences through a variety of media.
* So much more!
I want to challenge everyone to be as involved as you can. If you're a shop please consider dedicating some staff time to the cause. If you're an individual find your place among us and jump in. As Ben mentioned we have very specific goals out of the gate. As we see those realized we will start working on multiple, parallel projects and we're going to need help.
I D E A S
We're full of them already, but soon we'll be inviting more ideas; YOUR ideas! The business and marketing efforts are exactly like the code... We all own it and we all benefit from it.
I am SO energized by the fact that we are at this point. I'm even more energized by the possibilities of where we could be 1yr from today!
- DV
I want to help but don't know how
I really want to be part of the community actions. I am an Indian don't have any marketing background. An application developer in Hyderabad India.
Please let me know how can i help
If you need any kind of
If you need any kind of support in Italy i'll gladly help.
I have lot of experience mentoring and persuading people about Drupal,
and would happily share ideas, time and work for this project.
You can contact me via mail or skype (saropatzi)
Creating a list
I'm currently creating a list of everybody who wants to help in one way or other. I will then hand out this list to the marketing committee chairperson as soon as we have one. Currently I am also searching for the chair so any pointers on candidates are welcome!
Yeah!
This is very exciting news! I'm especially happy to see the broad outreach effort. If you need a hand, I'm willing to pitch in!
This is exactly what we need!
It would be great help for us ignorant low level developers (and also to marketing people of course) to make exactly clear the principles and most important points how and to whom pitch Drupal when comes the change. In other words: spread the word in the right way.
Exactly! In many ways, the
Exactly! In many ways, the problem is that there are too many great things to say about Drupal. We need a few powerhouse phrases that get attention and then follow up with great tools to continue the conversation.
There's a reason why Apple has "Think Different", "1000 Songs in Your Pocket", and even "Resolutionary." (Or my personal fav, "Give Random a Chance".) That's not enough to convince but it's the attention-grabbing essence that leads to consumers wanting to find out more.
What if we all had the same killer Drupal message? "Drupal [something awesome here]." How much further and faster could we go if we all used the same powerful messaging? Decision makers would flock to Drupal, that's what. :)
Just one of many opportunities we're excited about.
Thanks for your support!
Helping out
We would be happy to help with this initiative.
We have already started our own outreach program to spread the word beyond the Drupal faithful. A lot of the things we are doing can be done by others. We would be happy to share and help coordinate efforts.
Tom
This will be really cool
Very excited to see this come to life! In my research on Drupal's representation and perception in the marketplace, I've encountered so much muck. Our terminology and concepts leave non-Drupallers scratching their heads, hard as we try our own individually-crafted messaging tends to be mixed when taken together, and people from outside Drupal toss around oodles of mis- and disinformation about us (whether they mean to or not).
The collaboration of thousands of minds in the Drupal community has made Drupal what it is today. I look forward to seeing that same approach applied to introducing Drupal to the rest of the world; our message will be strongest when we can combine the experience and insights of not only sales and marketing folks, but also the technical practitioners, project managers, client users, and others in the Drupal ecosystem who hold the keys to the authentic Drupal story.
Big thanks to Ben for getting us all off our butts and making this happen!
I'm willing to help as well.
I'm willing to help as well. I'm not incredibly technical, but I love me some Drupal! I've been to several Drupal Camps as well as DrupalCon Denver. I can mainly help with social media. Let me know what I can do to contribute.
reflect from the outside
That sounds like a cool idea. I think I might be of help in reflecting on the drupal brand from the point of view from a relative outsider, and a person who used drupal as a tool to solve problems.
I have been using drupal for 4 years, as a tool to build small sites and to model processes where information if flowing through multiple organisations. I think it could be a good idea to get the perception of the drupal brand by potential clients on the table, and coming up with a proper strategy.
I'd love to be involved
I'd love to be involved in this as well. A coordinated marketing strategy is well overdue! I am currently hands-on with some of the DA's initiatives, and have a strong interest in seeing this through to the wider effort to market Drupal effectively. This investment can only be good for every individual and organisation involved in the Drupal project and it's great to see it all kicking off!