Genius PR by iOpus – A Swiss Army Knife for Google Chrome, and More
iOpus is one of those companies that don’t make the headlines too often, perhaps because they are too busy innovating. For those of you who didn’t know about iOpus, this is a privately held provider of web automation, data extraction and web testing solutions. Their complete name is iOpus Software GmbH, and they are based in Heidelberg, Germany. But this is not a company profile.
What caught out attention was iOpus’ PR strategy in introducing to the media their new product: iMacros. Read and learn: the press release’s title reads “iOpus Reveals Swiss Army Knife for Google Chrome.” It’s a catchy title, that makes the reader go “huh?” in a second. Whoever came up with this idea is a PR genius.
As you know, titles are micro-content, and their purpose is to give a general idea of the macro-content (the body of a press release, article, book, etc.), but also to entice the reader to continue reading the whole message. The ideal title is memorable and in a press release reveals two of the most important aspects of the news: the what, and the who. iOpus managed to release a press communique with the perfect ingredients. Analyzing the rest of the release is almost pointless – suffice to say that it is as flawlessly executed as the title. Nothing is boring, there are no redundant expressions, and the self aggrandizing formulas used by so many other companies are completely absent.
The first paragraph dissects the Swiss Army Knife metaphor. iMacros is “a virtual Swiss Army Knife for the streamlined browser.” Can you read between the lines? Swiss Army Knife? Well, as iOpus tells us later, in the same press release, Whatever you do with Chrome, iMacros can automate it.
For the tech savvy readers, iMacros is a tool for instant web automation, data extraction and web testing. It was developed as an open source, to help users automate their browsing experience – for example to fill in complicated forms faster. Currently, iMacros is available for Google Chrome, Firefox and IE (the last two being predecessors to iMacros for Chrome).
An interesting feature of iMacros for Chrome is defined as “social scripting.” Per iOpus description of the concept: Users can embed the complete macro in a simple link that can be shared with friends and coworkers. Users can also embed the link on their homepage, blog and company Intranet. In this way, users can help website visitors perform certain tasks. Instead of telling visitors how to fill out a form, users can let iMacros fill out the form for them. All information is stored inside the link as a text string, and nothing is stored on our servers.
iMacros aims to becoming one of the top Chrome add-ons – and with a marketing strategy like this, they are most likely to succeed.
