So we bought a 10-minute spot for $15,000 at a trade show. We had this sales guy say, "Everyone stand up, because we are going to play rock, paper, scissors. And the winner gets a Hummer. But instead of saying 'rock, paper, scissors,' we're going to say 'Om-ni-ture.' " So you got 1,500 people chanting "Om-ni-ture." Ever since that day, there really haven't been any RFPs that we didn't get an invite to.
Looks like Josh James and Omniture does not forget its roots.
"World’s Largest Rock, Paper, Scissors Contest Promotes Entrepreneurship"
"In an effort to promote entrepreneurship and raise money for charity, the BYU Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization hosted its 2nd annual Omniture Throwdown - the world’s largest rock, paper, scissors tournament...
So when the club's director of membership services, Derek Pando, came up with the idea for a giant Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, as crazy as it sounded, they decided to go for it...
As an additional way of promoting entrepreneurship, the competition was sponsored by Omniture, a leading provider of online business optimization software, which was co-founded by a former BYU CEO president, Josh James."
He comes out to speak to us students on campus at BYU all the time. He brings a big-crowd because he's very authentic. Even though he's worth like $300 Million, he's very down to earth and real, which I think draws people to him.
Here's one of his talks: http://byuebusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/josh-james-december...
They also host an iPhone application contest, and the highways around BYU are plastered with billboards for Omniture. They do a great job of promoting the company to potential talent. Example billboard - "The Internet - Al Gore invented, Omniture improved."
I just watched the video. Excellent! Thanks for the thumbs up review. Here's a few nuggets (it's worth the entire 50 minutes and rewatching):
For three years, Omniture was the fastest growing software company in the world. And the 22nd to ever reach a billion total in sales.
"I think one of the problems that you see with..I've invested in a bunch of companies - it's really quite... appalling's not really the right word - that's being overly judgmental - it's interesting to me the number of people who don't understand and focus in on... Revenue Revenue Revenue. Like who cares if the desk isn't put together. Who cares if you don't have time to call that person back. Who cares if that persons mad about that and they want talk about it and they want to sit down and talk about when they get health care. Who cares if that guy wants to go to a Chamber of Commerce of Meeting. All that really matters is that you sell some stuff.
In 2002 we had a bunch of people we fired and they were saying really untrue stuff about us in the valley. It's a small valley. We were just a $4M business - who cares about a $4M business - investors don't. We were saying 'you know we would never do it - you guys know us but you know it was he says, she says. But you know what, the day of reckoning must come. You just build the business. The credibility comes with the quality of business. Then they realize that the stuff you were saying was true.
A lot of people when they start a business are worrying about way too many things other than sales. And that's really all that matters in the business is a sale. And if you can't get a sale, then you go back and fix the product. And as soon as it's minimally good enough to sell, then you sell it."
Another one: He would have a single meeting in SF and he would go and buy 15 books on marketing, branding, guerilla marketing - and find 5 after 10 min. sucked, 5 had a good chapter and 5 he read cover to cover. That is how he learned to build his confidence when going into big meetings "That idea is stupid.. well, Coca Cola didn't think so (snap!)"
Simply brilliant.