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I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

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Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#41
The psychology of a car spam victim (flyer for a local garage band's performance, real parking ticket) is pretty funny to observe. When they pull it off their windshield, some will put it in their vehicle (to throw away later), some will toss it onto the ground (even if seem like they'd never litter any other time), and some will double-put it onto the adjacent vehicle (yes, even with real parking tickets).

I think you just left 118 pieces of litter (blowing off the parking lot into adjacent properties) at YC Demo Day. Hopefully you'll perform some sort of "green litter offset" trash pickup to mitigate the environmental impact. Perhaps that may be assigned to you if you're unlucky.

Still, some people actually do pay money for the fake v!@gra to keep spammers in business. The difference here is the other 99.99% of spam victims can't physically locate the spammer to clobber or harangue them.

A 6-months-later update to recount the results of this experiment would be a real service to entrepreneurs as either an inspirational or cautionary tale.

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#42

I just want to say something: NOBODY CARES ABOUT QR CODES Yeah, I can go to tripl.com or whatever, also add your twitter/fb/G+ page otherwise you'll just look like some bozo stuck in Web 1.0 (contact by phone?!)

You'll love this site: http://qrafti.com/

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#43
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, I came here to note the "its" problem. I won't try the app or look any further, because anybody who can't be bothered to use proper grammar on a publicity stunt sure as hell isn't going to release a quality product.

That is not a just correlation. Someone who is creative enough to come up with something like this, probably has a creative app as well. It is nearly impossible to put out a product without any minor mistakes.

Attention to detail matters, especially when it comes to being trusted to run a business with someone else's money.

Regardless - I'd be quietly reprinting and replacing.

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would seriously caution people against making it a close copy (particularly of money) of an official document. Depending on the situation, there are state and federal statues backing up the local ones. // sorry to be a killjoy

How close does that actually look to a real parking ticket? It doesn't even say the word "parking" on it or mention a fine $ amount. This is just innovative guerrilla marketing.

It's littering.

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#45
post #20

Are windshield flyers now called "fake parking tickets" in order to sound less like spam?

I've always wondered if there is a law you could invoke against someone messing with your vehicle like this.

Is it legal for a random person (not law/parking enforcement) to pick up the wiper and but whatever garbage they want under there?

Can I put my used McDonald's bag under someones wiper?

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#46
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not have a smartphone? They're a very common way to install apps. Heck, I sometimes scan QR codes right off my monitor.

I've been in continuous ownership of at least one smartphone since the iPhone 1. I have yet to scan a QR code "in the wild" (i.e., while not testing software that's QR-code related). I'm willing to bet I can tap the install button for a given app faster than you can scan the equivalent QR code and hit install. The challenge is for iOS. The workflow for scanning and actioning on a QR code is tediously slow. Unlock you…

There are plenty of effective scanner apps are out there. The one I use snaps the image almost instantly and away you go. It's not something that I use much, but it works when I need it. And yes - why not have a visible url as well.

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#47
It's a novel idea that can sometimes have a great effect. This sort of marketing trick has been used too many times to count. I remember a few years ago there being an ideas festival in my city and someone came up with the idea of using fake looking city issued traffic infringements like yourself that resembled authentic tickets pretty closely that said something like, "A $250 fine for not doing what do you want in life" or something along those lines.

What happened next however is the organisers behind the campaign were slapped with a littering charge, warned that it's actually highly illegal to impersonate a traffic fine even if you put a disclaimer on the fake infringement ticket. I don't recall what else they were fined for besides the littering charge, but I am pretty sure it cost them a small fortune combined with the other charges.

Be careful, this kind of gimmick could cost you dearly. City councils love a good opportunity to extort money out of people.

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#48

Personally, I would be rather peeved to be advertised to in this way. I wouldn't find it clever or cute--I would just find it annoying. I would not end up with a good impression of the company, and I wouldn't want to do business with it. One reason why I don't find it particularly clever, is that it's really not all that different from all the physical junk mail I receive that tries to visually mimic some sort of imp…

Imagine you're an investor, and you drive to "YC demo day", and listen to 30 pitches of small startup companies, go out to your car, and see a flyer in your windshield pitching another startup company...

Are you really going to be pissed at that, or is that just one more pitch (that some on here think shows hustle)? Doubtful investors are going to be pissed at this, and ... so what if they are. A couple of hundred people just visited their web site, most of them with money to invest...

Like handing your CV outside a job fair instead of paying to go in. Those people are there for this very reason and won't be too upset by it. pg and team might be pissed however...

Re: I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...

#49
post #19

I just want to say something: NOBODY CARES ABOUT QR CODES Yeah, I can go to tripl.com or whatever, also add your twitter/fb/G+ page otherwise you'll just look like some bozo stuck in Web 1.0 (contact by phone?!)

Do you not have a smartphone? They're a very common way to install apps. Heck, I sometimes scan QR codes right off my monitor.

Why? Both Google and Apple let you push apps to your phone from their respective application stores.
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