Firefox: the User Unleashed

Our first major attempt to broadcast their voice was our ad in The New York Times in December 2004. Our users donated enough money to purchase two full pages in the front section of the paper: one containing the names of all who donated, and the other celebrating our community's launch of Firefox 1.0. The entire process, from fund raising to the design of the ad itself, was driven by our users.

When December 2005 rolled around and brought the release of Firefox 1.5, we sought a new medium for their voice. We "did" newspapers already, but as successful as The New York Times effort was, it didn't give each of our users the chance to be heard individually. Video seemed like a great venue for that, but also a challenging one given that our target audience is non-technical. So rather than offer a page with an upload control and leave users to fend for themselves, we found a group called Metaliq whose technology enabled point-and-shoot testimonials for anyone with a webcam.

So far, users spanning six continents and seven decades have told us their story.
-- Blake Ross, Firefox

"Firefox Testimonials" is an intriguing signpost at the intersection of consumer-generated content, word-of-mouth and brand evangelism. Although the videos themselves are simplistic and pixellated, the background map that leaps to the user's geographical region is well done and unobtrustive. As a brand that has been user-spread from the get-go, it was a coherent and smart leap for Firefox to ask its user-fans to submit videos -- and they maintained their consistently user-focused feel in part by not translating the non-English videos, whereas if an agency had done this there would have been subtitles. See in particular the woman who records her video in American Sign Language rather than speaking. As a Firefox fan myself, I enjoyed seeing the videos. If I hadn't downloaded the browser, this might have made me give it a try.
-- Brad Berens, executive editor, iMedia Communications, Inc.