There’s this company called Acxiom that has created a new mascot for marketing purposes. They are calling him X-Guy. (It used to be X-Man, but that was probably too close to lawsuit territory.) Anyway, on the company homepage, there’s a flash video where he appears to rescue a marketer who is sitting at his computer in a cubicle. If you’re thinking that sounds lame, you would be right, but that’s what makes it amusing.
While I normally applaud the use of humor by corporations and other professional groups, I’m thinking this particular methodology probably isn’t the best marketing strategy for a company that is in the information technology (IT) sector. This is a company with $1.4 billion in annual revenue, yet this is how they are promoting their “X” brand. They even issued a press release to announce their new website design. (I don’t know why…) Regardless of whether it’s a good strategy or not, they did it, so check it out and have a laugh.
Here’s the link : Acxiom homepage.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do not work for this company. But I am somewhat familiar with it, for various reasons.
Buffet o' Blog 
Thomas Wayne
Their X-Guy wanna-be superhero has strange facial hair — one curly hair on his chinny-chin-chin. I don’t know if he’s trying to make some new fashion statement, or if he’s just not manly enough to grow a full gotee.
Holiday Inn Express
That’s a hair?? It looks like it was some sort of upside down volcano on his chin. At least then he’d have a power. Not a super power, but just a regular power.
That’d also explain why he’s called X-Guy, Volcano Chin Guy sounded dumb.
Thomas Wayne
I’ve had volcanoes on my face before, but they erupt with some white stuff before the lava. Maybe the white stuff represents the smoke…
But those volcanoes are not part of my arsenal of super powers…
Thomas Wayne
BTW, Acxiom has apparently removed all links of it from their website. Perhaps it was because they announced that and then the stock started going down… or maybe too many people made fun of it.
But never fear, if you haven’t seen it yet, because I found it elsewhere.
Beppo
It appears that X-Guy was laid-off from Acxiom…
How precedented…
mango-man
I finally got around to checking out the video. After watching it I still don’t know what they are offering. btw… was the voiceover screwed up when ya’ll watched it? the sounds and theme music was loud and clear but the voices was all quite and muddled sounding. it’s also had a weird echo thing happening. I suppose it might be just my pc, but it did it each time i tried to watch. You said X-guy’s already laid off? funny stuff.
Beppo
I don’t remember the audio being off the first time I watched it, but on the backup version I noticed it.
If it was messed up each time, maybe the people working on it missed their deadline to get it perfected because they had too many meetings to attend and too many change tickets to handle. I hear that such things can hinder productivity…
Alesandro Boudrah
for I am oft misquoted.
I detist bad spelling…
Fab is fabulous – Beppo is Beppo-ulis and Kri is Krisopulis
Grace to you all for a fortenight and beyund.
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Alesandro – never abbrev. my name
Thomas Wayne
Acxiom apparently re-hired their X-Guy wanna-be superhero. You can find him now on their YouTube page.
Acxiom’s X-Guy
It’s the same video as before, but the sound is fixed.
I was afraid that he had been laid-off, which can be quite disruptive to your normal life, even for a superhero…