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Brammo in the Wall Street Journal

From an article about Brammo's winning bid in the Crispin Porter + Bogusky slave intern auction, in the Wall Street Journal:

Bidding $17,655 On eBay, Brammo Wins An Ad Campaign

Nearly every issue of VentureWire mentions a start-up raising venture capital and using a portion of that funding for sales and marketing. Getting the word out about a new product is an important part of a young company’s success.

But it ain’t cheap. And in times when it’s increasingly important for a start-up to run lean, marketing budgets are likely to take a hit.

Brammo Inc. is one of those companies that needs to generate some buzz. In July, Ashland, Ore.-based Brammo will launch the Enertia, an all-electric, modern take on a cafe racer-style motorcycle. The bike will first go through a trial sales test in West Coast area Best Buy stores, as the company counts the retailer’s venture arm Best Buy Capital as a shareholder.

“We’ve got some ideas about how to go after our marketing and we want to be cost effective and creative,” Chief Executive Craig Bramscher said. “Best Buy obviously has a lot of people coming through their doors, but we want them to really understand electric vehicles.”

So where can a young company find a great deal on an advertising campaign? Auction site eBay, of course.

Last month, advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which has been behind popular campaigns for Burger King, Microsoft and Volkswagen in recent years, allowed their 40 summer interns to auction their services on eBay as a way to earn some extra cash beyond minimum wage. By the time the auction ended on Wednesday, the interns received 44 bids, with Brammo the winner for $17,655.

“I bid once and forgot about it,” Bramscher said. “Then I got an email reminder. I had forgotten that the auction was expiring. I placed a bid with about 30 seconds left and we were fortunate to win.”

Bramscher said he held his first meeting with Crispin Porter + Bogusky on Monday. He’s looking for a disruptive campaign, heavy on social media. Brammo’s internal marketing efforts have already been Web 2.0 savvy. The home page features a feed of Brammo blog mentions, Google News mentions and a Twitter stream, while its contact page includes a Google Map and the bios of executive team members are all Diggable.

“As a start-up we’re trying to find ways to be creative,” Bramscher said. “Getting to mind-share 40 people well connected in social media will be great.”

Bramscher thinks a summer working on Brammo ads is also a great opportunity for the interns. “They can say ‘What did I do this summer? I built a global brand.’ That’s pretty cool.”

Bramscher said he’s confident that Crispin Porter + Bogusky has selected interns that will produce agency quality ideas. And, for that, he said the price was right.

“We did some simple math and we’re paying less than a buck an hour,” Bramscher said. “It’s quite a bit cheaper.”

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc

No Guts, No Glory. Know TTR Guts? Know TTR Glory

Posted by Bogusky, the ad-man whose company placed its interns on a kind of slave auction for the new millenium, for which, by the way, Brammo got the winning bid, has posted an interesting picture of a slightly disassemmbled TTR.
We see many cables, a laptop, a mysterious black box, and ... what is that on the shelf behind the bike? Could those be trays of dilithium crystals?

Another Brammo post from the TTXGP Blog

Imperial TTXGP

Brammo, the US manufacturer of the Enertia Electric motorcycle, based in Ashland, Oregon, was one of the first commercial teams from America to enter the TTXGP.

A modified version of its Enertia motorcycle, which is designed for inner city commutes, has been developed for entry into the TTXGP. The Enertia is already commercially available in the US and there are plans in place to make the Enertia road legal and commercially available in the UK.
The Team:

* Team Leader: Brian Wismann
* Roy Richardson: Best Buy Geek Squad Technical Support
* Mark Buckley: Best Buy Geek Squad Technical Support