Matthew Revell

I admire anyone trying to launch a web design studio, particularly in a small town.

How do you cope with a market that, for the most part, doesn’t understand your business? Then there are some elements of your competition who have equally as poor a grasp and claim to undercut you by hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds?

Argweb, jointly of Stourbridge and Cologne, have come up with a nice scheme to get in the local paper. The post code of their Stourbridge office begins “DY”, for nearby town Dudley. So, they’ve printed a stash of “I love DY” tshirts, in the style of the “I love NY” shirts, and launched a website selling them. Brilliant! Tap into local pride + press the “local story” buttons of the regional press = media coverage and local good will. If they’re lucky, they might even sell the shirts, making back their minimal costs.

The local paper, the Express and Star, has run a story on the shirts, with subtle-enough a sales pitch for Argweb so as not to appear to be full-on advertorial.

I’m pretty sure the journalist had a grin on his face while writing the article:

For instance, while a New York tourist website pompously describes the city as the “capital of the world”, Dudley people for decades have spoken with pride of coming from the Capital of the Black Country.

Cringe-worthy comparisons between Dudley and New York continue but it’s all rounded off with a neat call to action, including the URL of the tshirt website.

Few people are going to take the tshirts seriously but I’m impressed with Argweb’s handling of the local press: they knew exactly which boxes to tick. Unfortunately, Argweb seem to be a little too keen on Flash-based websites. They clearly understand how to create appealing designs but make few concessions to the web as medium.

Anyway, I’ll have to ask my Cologne-based colleague if their local paper has a story on “Ich liebe Kolne” tshirts.