Wednesday November 15, 2006

Supercomputing '06 here in Tampa includes a very large vendor exhibition with hundreds of companies, universities, research laboratories, etc. participating. As I finished a tour of the show floor yesterday and was walking towards the Sun booth, I was struck by how different it was from any other booth at the show.

It wasn't the content: We have as much flashy gear and as many demo stations as any other large vendor in our 50' x 50' booth. It wasn't the activity level: I think we have a rather high number of visitors given our excellent location near the main entrance to the hall, and given also the number of interesting new products we're displaying (e.g., Thumper, Sun Fire 8000.) But that wasn't what I'd noticed.

It took me a few minutes to realize it was our branding program I was reacting to. In that mass of hard-edged, high-tech focused graphics, our earth-toned imaging with naturalistic themes was a little island of warmth in a big, cold sea of uninspiring and unremarkable messaging. Green trees, a red surfboard, children. It made the booth a warmer and more welcoming place to visit.