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Codename: Voltron
Posted by Mathew Patterson on January 8, 2009 1:34 PM
Here at team Freshview, there are a lot of 80s children, people who grew up with Thundercats, G-Force, G.I. Joe... all the classics. Ranking high among them was Voltron.
Voltron, for those who are not aware, is a mighty robot and self proclaimed 'Defender of the Universe'. The robot was formed from 5 separate vehicles, and later, robot lions (clearly the best Voltron). So when we decided that our two products, Campaign Monitor and MailBuild would be merged into a single powerful product, the codename was obvious.
So began Project Voltron. At first, it was just a more convenient way to refer to the project than 'the merged Campaign Monitor and MailBuild', but it soon became clear that the team was quite attached to the idea.
Support guru Travis used his Ebay skills(z) on the sly, and one magical day there was a new member of staff, a genuine 80s Lion Voltron toy, complete with pilots. He took up pride of place protecting our lunch tables in the office.
Weeks later, a box of Voltron t-shirts arrived in a range of 2 fashionable colours, and over the next couple of months as the team worked hard to finish the project, those shirts got plenty of wear.
As it turns out, a Voltron t-shirt is an excellent way to attract attention for a certain type of person on the street, while waiting for elevators and shopping in stores. If you're a geek looking for an easy conversation starter - get yourself into some Voltron merch.
So that's the story of how an enormous, detachable robot became the mascot of an email marketing web application. Who knows which cartoon could inspire a future Freshview product!
Ian Pollard
wrote on January 16, 2009 3:37 AM
Voltron was sooo cool! Far superior to these Johnny-come-lately PowerRangers, with with their mighty morphing dino nonsense. I think there was supposed to be a strong moral metaphor behind Voltron (together we win, etc), but, frankly, it's all about the sword that could cut through anything! There may be some insane phallic undertones there, but it was still cool. Congrats on the merging of CampaignMonitor and MailBuild!
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