If you live in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, there's a good
chance you've come across one of several mysterious billboards in
recent weeks with controversial statements like the one above. Other
billboards have touted messages like "The Internet should be regulated"
and "Artists need to play by the rules." Now, we finally know who is
behind them: BitTorrent.
The peer-to-peer service revealed in a blog post
Tuesday that the billboards are intended to "remind the world what's at
stake on the world wide web." This week, BitTorrent is crossing out one
or two words on the billboards to change the messages to reflect the
company's true beliefs.
"With the reveal, we are showing people that things don't actually
have to be like that," Matt Mason, VP of marketing for BitTorrent, told Mashable
in an interview, referring to the original bleak messages. "If you look
at BitTorrent's technology and protocols, things can be a different
way."
Here are two shots — before and after — of the billboard messages, courtesy of Mashable Editor in Chief Lance Ulanoff, who spotted them on the street:
Mason says the billboards represent the company's first major
marketing campaign and are intended to "re-introduce" the brand to
consumers. "For so long, the word 'BitTorrent' has been used as a
placeholder for piracy," he says. "We wanted to start saying loudly that
we are a respectable tech company."
As part of that effort, the startup and its marketing team have
worked to partner with content companies and better educate businesses
and consumers on the legal uses for its technology. BitTorrent is also
building new products like a secure chat tool to help users avoid data breaches.
So why would a digital company choose to go with a billboard campaign
for its first big marketing effort? In part, it's precisely because
it's counter-intuitive.
"It is the antithesis of what people would expect," Mason says. "We
wanted to do something that was very visible and very easy for people to
see and understand, and that would be billboards."
BitTorrent has bought about 30 billboards to date, according to
Mason, and plans to continue the campaign through the end of the year.
Mason would not disclose how much BitTorrent is spending on the
campaign.
Original Source : http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/bittorrent-nsa-billboards/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link
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