damn boss, i thought you were a new media revolutionary, didn't know you were down with kickin' it old school and plastering your blog with some mass-market, non-personalized, interruption-based ads just 'cause some one paid you to do so. i guess now that you've got corporate sponsorship deals dissin' the fans is cool and just a part of the business. thanks for nothing, boss!
lol just joking. but i dont think this is the future of advertising. i would have much preferred fedex to create a special campaign, maybe call it FRED Ex, and seek to have a real conversation with the avc.com community. if they did that, and if i got the okay from you that they were cool peeps, i might be inclined to use them.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
Yup
But one step at a time
These are big companies with a long history of doing things a certain way
JLM
· 7 months ago
Ethan Bauley
· 7 months ago
Even more to the point, the staff resources needed to carry on a large-scale "real conversation" generally don't exist (i.e. aren't explicitly dedicated to said opportunity)
Mark Essel
· 7 months ago
ohh I like the FRED Ex Kid, nice ring to it!
RonDiver
· 7 months ago
All fine, but I was more impressed that UPS reached out within hours of my frustrated tweet about a delayed package. Their follow-through was fantastic. This campaign, and the proposed FREDEx model, just don't stand a chance against real engagement with customers.
theflyingchange
· 7 months ago
That is incredible service indeed. See - coupling some kind of Twitter strategy with this takeover makes more sense to me. Right now, I guess I'm not getting it.
henryyates
· 7 months ago
Great that Fedex are doing a takeover which is going towards Donors Choose, however, in my view this is a good example of why web advertising has a long way to go before it delivers on its potential. There is much more value from the PR of doing this than the media. Still an opportunity for someone to reinvent or find a substitute for display/sponsorship ads on the web.
Niyi
· 7 months ago
You are right.
The corporate social responsibility points from this gesture are far greater than the impact of a thousand banners. I see a new ad vertical emerging - publishers who are willing to donate all/part of their ad revenue to charitable causes.
What we need now is a system that helps advertisers find them easily.
jonknight
· 7 months ago
Great idea! Looking forward to helping you help out.
edit: and hey, they have projects sponsored here in NC too! Fantastic!
daryn
· 7 months ago
Did FedEx design the takeover? It's fairly subtle, especially at my usual browser window size, the top banner is the first thing I noticed.
I'm a big fan of Donors Choose, happy for the reminder (and the gift card) to give again!
Facebook User
· 7 months ago
I'm a big fan of Fed Ex for documents. They have never let me down, and I think their customer service is absolute top notch!
Matthew
· 7 months ago
What a great idea Fred! Thanks FedEx!
Morgan Warstler
· 7 months ago
The advertising lends gravitas to your work. Kudos.
Mark Essel
· 7 months ago
So when does Houdini stop in to show you even more amazingly cool things to do to impress your readers? Fantastic idea Mr. Wilson, stop shaming us with your generous and inventive nature ;)
To one up Fred we're going to have turn water into energy, have it counter pollution, and feed the hungry at the same time, back to the laboratory...
I look forward to the day Fred figures out how to transform our attention and interest into making ourselves rich: "surprise guys, you're loaded and donated millions to charity along the way"
JohnSharp
· 7 months ago
I haven't seen this many FedEx logos in one place since "Castaway". ;-)
Fred Smith, now there's an inspiring entrepreneurial story.
kidmercury
· 7 months ago
lol yeah the product placement in cast away was a bit over the top
Anonymous
· 7 months ago
Fred, How is the "takeover" implemented as compared to your usual advertising?
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
The banner on top is not usually there
And they've taken over the sides as well
Michael Nolan
· 7 months ago
Great idea Fred - hope I was one of the 30!
For years I sat on the board of the Educare foundation in my town in Minnesota.
I always liked the idea - we provided "mini-grants" to public school teachers to do all the cool things that they couldn't get done. We stayed away from capital campaigns and long-term commitments, and focused on smaller "bang-for-buck" ideas.
I always dreamed of a "Kiva" for public schools - and it looks like DonorsChoose is on it's way to becoming just that.
Good job!
Mike
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
"kiva for public schools" is a good way to think about donors choose
jonathanmendez
· 7 months ago
in the spirit of giving it would be cool if you, FM & Fedex could share some buy side and sell side performance data on this. ;)
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
I don't know who is tracking this
I'm not
daryn
· 7 months ago
Equally cool would be if Fedex & FM matched all the donations :)
The DonorsChoose GivingCards are a great idea that I didn't know existed! I'm going to suggest we use them for all of our TeachStreet incentives (for user research, surveys, etc..); they are a perfect fit for our core values.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
I started seeing tweets last night that the gift cards had been sent out
I didn't have to do a thing!
Totally awesome
Gregg Smith
· 7 months ago
I'll see if some of my fedex friends on twitter from here in Memphis can look into that (read this @mattceni?)
Joe Friend
· 7 months ago
Very nice. What a great way to fund projects and engage with your readers. Can't wait to pick out a project to fund with my $30!
Andy Swan
· 7 months ago
Just for the record, Adblock Plus for FF catches the top banner but not the sides or the drop-box next to your face.
hadar
· 7 months ago
I would have missed it for this reason too, if Fred hadn't coupled this specific post with the takeover. That made me view it in Chrome, where I could see the full effect. I wonder what the FedEx stats would have looked like on their end if it wasn't "announced" on this blog, but just appeared...
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
Well then I'll have to change my banner ad set up
doug
· 7 months ago
Regarding Fred Smith: I have read countless stories on (and I always thought til recently) his getting a "C" on his FedEx proposal at Yale was a sign of how terrible professors (and many others) were at gauging real-world business prospects for a fresh idea.
But recently I have begun to question whether despite his having had a great idea for FedEx, he had earned only a "C" because he had done a poor job presenting his great idea, something which I have been guilty of and am learning is equally important to actually conceiving something new and better.
Gregg Smith
· 7 months ago
FedEx is legendary for losing a lot of VC money. The firm I worked for here in Memphis has/had one of the original business plans (but they didn't invest). FedEx went through a couple of down rounds, but Fred somehow still stayed on top. I'll dig around for more.
ShaneOGorman
· 7 months ago
Fred - I think its great that people in positions like yours stop for a moment from time to time to do something good like this. I think a model like this might work better than a 24 7 charity. Thanks for doing this though.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
I agree about "snacking on philanthropy"
Raj Advani
· 7 months ago
Some of the most intense takeovers I've seen are at www.gamespot.com, it's a barrage of advertising followed by CSS domination.
theflyingchange
· 7 months ago
Fred - this is interesting but what is the specific value prop that FedEx is proposing? Honestly curious. How does their sponsorship relate to you? Are they saying they are believers in social media or web services? Is there a place to go to learn more about their view on those issues? Does someone at FedEx Twitter and are they engaging in some kind of conversation about the ways that web services like Twitter, Outside.in, etc might relate to their core business? I guess I'm curious whether there is a specific reason they're 'taking over the blog' and whether there are any synergies they're trying to exploit besides just being near you and thus being cool/smart/etc.
Unrelated, my new record is out nationally tomorrow and free copies for anyone that Tweets about it and/or wants one. Hit me up.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
Its a great record sam. Is there a link to it I should use when posting/tweeting about it?
theflyingchange
· 7 months ago
Well, because it's the release date, I'm giving away free copies for people via Twitter, etc. You can use this URL: http://bit.ly/10asKT Hashtag: #painisareliablesignal
Thanks, Fred! The support is greatly appreciated!
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
I just tweeted it out to over 20,000 ppl
I am sure you'll have a few new fans by the end of the day!
theflyingchange
· 7 months ago
Fred- you really helped me out today sir. Thank you. Its good kharma and I really really appreciate it. Thank you for being so generous. That's your earned media that you just opted to share. Thank you.
howardlindzon
· 7 months ago
can fedex takeover my blog. happy to do the same for however long they want. great idea. loving the takeover.
CharityBiker
· 7 months ago
Great idea Fred! Really admire all the work you are doing for charity with this blog.
Nathan Bowers
· 7 months ago
Apple did an amazing "takeover" of the New York Times today. It's video of PC and Mac pointing out a banner ad and interacting with a person in another ad. Very funny, worth disabling adblock for. screenshot of ad
Vlad
· 7 months ago
The "good cause" component is what makes this ad redeeming otherwise it would be as irritating and pointless as any other usual web advertisement - especially like the Apple takeovers that slow everything down.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
I knew that which is why I added the "good cause" component
I turn down campaigns all the time for this blog
But I felt this one could be redeemed and so I did it
Kristin Maverick
· 7 months ago
Just wanted to say that this is a really great cause. I was happily surprised to see a 10$ card come through even after not being part of the first 30. I quickly donated to help give 25 dry erase boards with musical staff on them to give students an experience to make their own music.
Felt really good that even a little bit of help can make such a big difference. Really great to see blogging/social media being put to a good cause.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
Wait 'till you get the feedback messages from the teacher and kids
That's the best part of donors choose
michael
· 7 months ago
Someone tell me I'm not alone in this observation of about 2 seconds ago (after umpteen years of staring at the logo): There's a perfect arrow formed by the Ex. Brilliant!
Shurtleff
· 7 months ago
Fred, does anyone provide a general widget capability to connect blogs to charities. I serve on one non profit board i would like to plug / market / direct voluntary contributions from the blogs i work on to this charity. Seen any technology or solution providers that takes Donor Choose and morfs it into a generic capability?
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
There was something a few years back but I didn't really turn into anything
Alex
· 7 months ago
Thank you for letting me place some of the proceeds from this campaign. I've recently graduated and recently started a fairly well paying job. I've been thinking of all the things I can do and buy with my new found income. Its been my plan to give a share of my income up, but it was on the back-burner to all my fantastic, egocentric ideas. This reminded me of my promise of giving back and brought up an even more interesting question; who can I give to?
harmless, yes. annoying, no. but makes your site ugly and less credible to those don't know how credible you are.
turns avc from something google/craigslist/twitter-like (not brand-bastardized) to something more yahoo/msn/classmates.com-like
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
I know scott
But it allowed me to give out over 250 donors choose gift cards yesterday and I feel great about that
Of course, I could have done that without Fedex taking over this blog
But sometimes life gives you lemons and you can turn them into lemonade
I like doing that
ktroia
· 7 months ago
What's the point (business value) to F/X taking over the site? Is it just so ppl talk about it? So, if there's 44 of us with comments, do they consider that success? This doesn't inspire me to ... oh, wait I just remembered I have a picture frame in the back of my closet I really need to ship to my mom.
Thank heaven I saw this takeover. I would have completely forgotten and she never would have received that picture frame that absolutely positively had to be there overnight (or 2 day or 3 day)...
(I know, I know - it's a branding ad. Just seems a bit pointless to me)
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
This comment cracked me up, particularly the bit about the picture frame
ktroia
· 7 months ago
Glad I made you laugh, Fred. I actually don't think this concept is bad - but I think there are a few dots that need to be better connected. What does F/X have in common with you or with your charity? Quite honestly, I would expect something a bit more clever. It's early, so I'm not coming up with any miraculous idea but it's something along the lines of you all sharing the same interest in the charity; or them providing you all your overnight mail services; or perhaps it's copy services for a year for the first person that names the most recent F/X location.
Just some thoughts.
Joe
· 7 months ago
disqus comment testing
lindsaycampbell
· 7 months ago
This is awesome, really awesome, Fred. And you're so right about big companies. Celebrate the small victories, of which this is definitely one.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
Hi Lindsay
It's nice to hear from you
Daniel Ha
· 7 months ago
This has nothing to do with the article. Just saying hi with the crew at Wired.
fredwilson
· 7 months ago
Hi back
Geoff
· 7 months ago
absolutely hate the full screen subliminal >FedEx flash as the pages turn.
Fred Ex what a cool idea - I remember getting real angry once with them in the UK and riinging their head office asking to speak to Fred - unbelievably he answered the phone and was very sympathetic with the problems they were having in the UK.
Dave Chase
· 7 months ago
A bit off topic but coincidentally just got back from Memphis yesterday where I spoke at a conference by The Memphis News and was on a panel with the lead on Social Media for FedEx. Great guy and the main point of this comment is if you ever get to Memphis, try to finagle your way into a "hub tour" (it helps to know an employee and have some advance notice). FedEx does tours at 11pm & 1am which is the busiest time of day for them at their Memphis hub.
I was struck by the fact that their hub is a rough physical world equivalent of the Internet in terms of routing pack ets/ages all over the world. During this "normal" day, it moved well over a million packages from that one hub (their largest). While I was there, planes were landing about every 90 seconds. I believe they told me that there's 300 miles of conveyor belts and 150-200 planes landing and taking off per night.
All Comments
lol just joking. but i dont think this is the future of advertising. i would have much preferred fedex to create a special campaign, maybe call it FRED Ex, and seek to have a real conversation with the avc.com community. if they did that, and if i got the okay from you that they were cool peeps, i might be inclined to use them.
But one step at a time
These are big companies with a long history of doing things a certain way
The corporate social responsibility points from this gesture are far greater than the impact of a thousand banners.
I see a new ad vertical emerging - publishers who are willing to donate all/part of their ad revenue to charitable causes.
What we need now is a system that helps advertisers find them easily.
edit: and hey, they have projects sponsored here in NC too! Fantastic!
I'm a big fan of Donors Choose, happy for the reminder (and the gift card) to give again!
To one up Fred we're going to have turn water into energy, have it counter pollution, and feed the hungry at the same time, back to the laboratory...
I look forward to the day Fred figures out how to transform our attention and interest into making ourselves rich: "surprise guys, you're loaded and donated millions to charity along the way"
Fred Smith, now there's an inspiring entrepreneurial story.
How is the "takeover" implemented as compared to your usual advertising?
And they've taken over the sides as well
For years I sat on the board of the Educare foundation in my town in Minnesota.
http://www.educarefoundation.org/index.php
I always liked the idea - we provided "mini-grants" to public school teachers to do all the cool things that they couldn't get done. We stayed away from capital campaigns and long-term commitments, and focused on smaller "bang-for-buck" ideas.
I always dreamed of a "Kiva" for public schools - and it looks like DonorsChoose is on it's way to becoming just that.
Good job!
Mike
I'm not
The DonorsChoose GivingCards are a great idea that I didn't know existed! I'm going to suggest we use them for all of our TeachStreet incentives (for user research, surveys, etc..); they are a perfect fit for our core values.
I didn't have to do a thing!
Totally awesome
But recently I have begun to question whether despite his having had a great idea for FedEx, he had earned only a "C" because he had done a poor job presenting his great idea, something which I have been guilty of and am learning is equally important to actually conceiving something new and better.
Unrelated, my new record is out nationally tomorrow and free copies for anyone that Tweets about it and/or wants one. Hit me up.
via Twitter, etc.
You can use this URL: http://bit.ly/10asKT
Hashtag: #painisareliablesignal
Thanks, Fred! The support is greatly appreciated!
I am sure you'll have a few new fans by the end of the day!
and I really really appreciate it. Thank you for being so generous.
That's your earned media that you just opted to share. Thank you.
I turn down campaigns all the time for this blog
But I felt this one could be redeemed and so I did it
Felt really good that even a little bit of help can make such a big difference. Really great to see blogging/social media being put to a good cause.
That's the best part of donors choose
fred, fedex is shitting on your website.
harmless, yes.
annoying, no.
but makes your site ugly and less credible to those don't know how credible you are.
turns avc from something google/craigslist/twitter-like (not brand-bastardized) to something more yahoo/msn/classmates.com-like
But it allowed me to give out over 250 donors choose gift cards yesterday and I feel great about that
Of course, I could have done that without Fedex taking over this blog
But sometimes life gives you lemons and you can turn them into lemonade
I like doing that
Thank heaven I saw this takeover. I would have completely forgotten and she never would have received that picture frame that absolutely positively had to be there overnight (or 2 day or 3 day)...
(I know, I know - it's a branding ad. Just seems a bit pointless to me)
Just some thoughts.
It's nice to hear from you
Fred Ex what a cool idea - I remember getting real angry once with them in the UK and riinging their head office asking to speak to Fred - unbelievably he answered the phone and was very sympathetic with the problems they were having in the UK.
I was struck by the fact that their hub is a rough physical world equivalent of the Internet in terms of routing pack ets/ages all over the world. During this "normal" day, it moved well over a million packages from that one hub (their largest). While I was there, planes were landing about every 90 seconds. I believe they told me that there's 300 miles of conveyor belts and 150-200 planes landing and taking off per night.