When Hardware Asylum (this website) was launched Dennis went through a major effort to bring attention to the new domain and convince readers that the switch from Ninjalane.com to Hardwareasylum.com wasn’t going to change anything about how we do things on this website. As part of the marketing campaign Dennis custom painted a series of computer cases in the official Hardware Asylum orange and positioned them as giveaway prizes along with things like coolers and even motherboards. Overall, the effort could be viewed as a success as it engaged the existing readership and attracted a few new readers but didn’t have the lasting effect that we all had hoped.
When companies host giveaway campaigns there is always and ROI baked into the metrics. Do you want more subscribers? Are you trin got make more sales? Do you want to see extra activity? Whatever the reason, the desired outcome should equal or exceed the effort you put in. For Hardware Asylum, the activity was nice though, it was a little disconcerting to see the custom painted chassis in the classified ads a couple weeks later.
The same goes for hardware makers who stage media events such as having Jensen from Nvidia come by and sign a one-of-a-kind graphics card as an endorsement of their ongoing partnership. Some people buy into the celebrity nature of the event while the person getting this rare unicorn simply wants a payday and is quick to unload an item that made headline news around the world.
In this episode the duo talks about the hype surrounding the rare 30th anniversary ROG graphics card that “somehow” made it into the second-hand market only to be leaked to a well-known website as a “rare and unexpected find” in hopes of driving up the price and get more interested buyers. While I feel sorry for the person who let the gem of a GPU go, I can applaud the efforts to maximize their lotto ticket.
Related Links
3D Artist Buys RTX 5090 From Second Hand Market
Hardware Asylum Custom Case Giveaway
Silverstone Raven 2 Casemod
Episode 185 featured music:
Little People - Start Shootin' (http://www.littlepeoplemusic.com/)
