David Cancel hated traditional business cards - too awkward andbulky for his jam-packed wallet. So he never carried them. That wasOK when he was a behind-the-scenes technical guy.
But when he founded a company, he knew he needed a way to getLookery, his Boston-based online advertising firm, noticed.
Tooling around the Internet, he found Moo.com, a website offeringwhat he wanted: a business card about half the size of a traditionalcard that would cause contacts to remember his company.
Cancel, who serves as Lookery's chief technical officer, hasgiven out a lot of his minicards, with just his name, URL, and e-mail address printed on them, mostly at conferences.
"They're a conversation starter for sure," he said. "Every time Ihand them out, people say something about them."
The cards first took hold among the MySpace and Facebookgeneration as a way for people in a social setting to give outinformation such as their websites and e-mail addresses. But theyare catching on among professionals, especially those who work intrend-setting fields such as online companies, design, or the arts.
They're easy to carry, are more environmentally friendly and cost-effective because they use less paper, allow for self-expression,and stand out, users say.
Distributing cards that are unusual sends a message about theexecutive and the company, said Karen Ong, chief executive andfounder of Cambridge-based My Happy Planet.com, a language-education site.
"Being a small card, it has a lot of character. It says thatwe're different, that we're not like traditional, big companies,"Ong said. "Having minicards definitely helps to stand out among thestacks of cards that are being handed out."
Moo.com, which launched the small cards in September 2006 withorders from 18 countries, has seen that grow to orders from 140 to150 countries. The London firm sold 10 million cards in 2007 andrecently launched a multilingual site.
Another website, Zazzle.com, launched what it calls skinny cardsin March. Both sites allow users to design their own cards, by usingprovided images or by uploading their own images. Zazzle's skinnycard is about half the height of a traditional business card, whileMoo's minicard is about 1-by-2 inches.
"We're a canvas for people to share their businesses," saidRichard Moross, Moo's chief executive officer and founder. "It helpspeople to show themselves off."
Both Zazzle and Moo executives say word of mouth has drivenpeople to their sites.
Zazzle's founder and chief product officer, Jeff Beaver, said hewas surprised that the nontraditional cards have taken off amongprofessionals, particularly those at small businesses.
The fact that there are designs available on the site that smallbusinesses wouldn't have the resources to create on their own isdriving the interest among that group, he said.
"It's the same kind of desire for self-expression we're seeingall across the media," he said.
"It's just not cool as much anymore to have the standard-lookingbusiness card."
No comments:
Post a Comment