Highlet 5″ floppy disk teaser campaign, who are they?
Ok so I opened an innocent looking brown envelope today and pulled out a letter from some company or other who was undoubtedly trying to sell me some service I didn’t want. So I was just about to crumple it up and bin it when I saw something else in the envelope, a 5″ floppy disk. Lol.
So I re-read the letter and saw that it was in fact a spoof. The letter is supposedly from a company who makes eyelets for safety footwear. And that they have recently won the “Status Quo Business Award in recognition of many years of stagnation”. Very good 
Looking at the website at Highlet.com you will see a quote from their MD Robert Smith saying “Change is the worst enemy of business”. They also have a blog here. This is the first entry:
Despite my best efforts, it isn’t always possible to avoid the latest trends in modern life. Sometimes, unfortunately, one just has to adapt.
With three recently recruited trainees to call on for technical support, I’ll be able to keep the sort of electronic diary youngsters call a “blog” and reveal daily life at Highlet in real time.
OK so all quite funny. Highlet are an imaginary company who seem to be stuck in the stone age when it comes to technology. So whats it all about? My best guess is that this is some sort of teaser/link bait campaign for someone who’s going to be offering some sort of very high tech service that will help our business.
There’s one other clue, the letter had a postmark saying it was from Publicis in London. Who have a wide range of clients here. So who is it? Can anybody shed some light?
What I’m listening to right now: Alicia Keys ft Cassidy – “No One” (Ted Smooth Remix)
Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Blogging, General Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
October 15th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Very clever. It’s for the band ‘The Eyeleters’. There’s a link to/from the MySpace.com page on the Highlet.com website.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I saw that link too and thought exactly the same. But then I thought, why are they sending out stuff like that to an Internet company? Hmmmm.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Well the domain is registered in France, the site is hosted there and the HTML source has bits of French in it so I’d say there’s a French connection. The HTML comments also have a link to a fake LinkedIn profile and the cryptic clue: INI
Does any of this help though?
October 15th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Publicis get good publicity for their viral campaigns. I can see why. I’m no closer to the truth but here’s ten connections I’ve found between the two (now three) connecting web pages…
1. Highlet.com links to MySpace ‘The Eyelet’ band page
2. ‘The Eyelet’ link to Highlet.com
3. ‘The Eyelet’ record label is ‘Highlet Music’
4. “The #1 Player in the Eyelet Industry”
5. “Nothing’s changed since 1982″. 1982 was also the year ‘Eyelet Resurrection’ was released.
6. The CEO is Robert K. Smith. All the band members have the same surname Smith.
7. Highlet on TV. See the show in 9 days. Is this date significant?
8. Join us page on Highlet has “Welcome to Thornhilly”. This is the same location as the bands upcoming shows. This place doesn’t appear to exist.
9. The Highlet.com page has a French version. There’s lots of French comments on the band page.
10. Martin Le Dall is the ‘IT Manager’ of Highlet. A search on Google for ‘Martin Le Dall’ returns this blog http://highlet-en.blogspot.com/ How far does this viral go?
October 15th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Maybe they didn’t send it to any internet company but to bloggers… because there was a high chance of a post like this?
October 15th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Very interesting. Don’t mean to be pedantic but is’nt it a 5 and 1/4 inch disk!
October 15th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
We got one at Altogether as well. Interesting stuff.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Well, the one step they could do to make this more viral is to send out chocolate 5 1/4” disks next time…
October 16th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I’m guessing that no-one as yet has been able to actually load up the disk? Would seem to be a logical first step.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Hello there.I read your Blog post where you were talking about highlet and the quiz of sorts. Well, if you are interested in knowing who the ‘face behind highlet is’ then visit my Blog posting at:
http://www.jasonslater.co.uk/index.php/2007/10/18/need-to-know-more-about-highletcom/
However, if you want to carry on playing the game without knowing the answer then avoid my posting like the plague!!
Nice Blog by the way,
Jason.
http://www.jasonslater.co.uk
October 25th, 2007 at 1:08 am
I am pleased to see that someone sees the benefits of stabiity. It makes all the blood, sweat and tears I put into my Fortran course in 1978 worth while.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:23 am
It’s boring corporate shit from capgemini who are spending a fortune on this as noone went to their 40th birthday party
October 26th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
the site was launched to drag you lot in and get you blogging about it: appears to have worked. Now wait for the campaign…
October 28th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
A prime lesson in how to keep the buzz stiring. Add a small piece of mystique to a combination of nostalgia and secrecy and voilá - You have a new advertising campaign that keeps bloggers awake at night.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
[...] it has now been “revealed” that the Highlet viral campaign I blogged about it is actually to promote [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:37 am
Yep, that comment is right on the money.