Corporate Marketing Thru CAD Blogs

Here's another example of vendors using independent blogs for marketing new products. This is part of a form letter delivered today by email from Autodesk:

I know you run a well respected blog, so I wanted to share this with you and a few other bloggers. To take a sneak peak of the beta version (called Diana ) before it is launched to the public next week, go to [url with held by editor]. (Remember, she s in beta, and you may find a few glitches.) Feel free to do what you want with the information: blog about it, rant about it, ignore it whatever. No strings attached.

A "sneak peak" that I am to "blog about." I get an image of sand grinding in gears.

I've haven't looked at the Web site mentioned. Is this a case of "getting the bloggers to do our marketing work for us for free?"

Update

Autodesk employee Lynn Allen enthuses, " I'd also like to introduce you to an amazing website for you architectural types who are trying to decide between AutoCAD, Architectural Desktop and Revit Building."

The results seem consistent:

* AutoCADder reports that "Diana is smart enough to recommend Revit in most cases."

* JTB reports similar results: "I found that Diana recommended that we should change from ADT to Revit Building."

* RobiNZ confirms the results: "She seems to like Revit Building, I tried a couple of times to get her to recommend something else with no luck."

This would make sense, because Autodek wants you to move to Revit, and because Revit Building (MSRP US$4,695 + $725/yr subscription) is more expensive than ADT (cost of AutoCAD + $945).

Comments

[JimL]

I wonder....
IF you did do to the aforementioned, by withheld URL, and you DID "evaluate" "Her" and...
IF, in your *honest* opinion wrote the "She" was the worest software you had ever seen...
Would you still, after the fact, have a "respected blog" - at least in the eyes of 'those' PR marketters.

Just Wondering :)

JimL

[David Claflin]

I tried Diana and contrary to RobinNZ's remarks, I did get it to recommend Architectural Desktop. However, it wasn't easy. I think it uses the degree of customization as a prime element in its decision-making process.

[Robin Capper]

I found "Diana" via Lynn Allens Blog (feed actually). After posting that comment I did get her to recommend ADT in the end. I think choosing something like ADT or AutoCAD with extensive customisation tipped the balance.

[John StJohn]

Regarding: Revit is more expensive than AutoCAD, the only people who would ever pay full price for Revit are first time buyers of Autodesk CAD software that don't know you can always get a better price from a reseller. For those who use AutoCAD, there's the upgrade to Revit Series and for those who use ADT, like me, there's the Revit Up upgrade. I now have $9,000 worth of CAD software (Revit and ADT) on my computer, but I didn't pay anywhere near that for it. Is there extra cost? Sure, but I must go forward or give up and go back to the pencil.