I Heart Moo
Moo is a startup that makes elegant slender business cards based on Flickr photos. Stef Magdalinski, employee #2 at Moo and one of the madmen behind UpMyStreet and TheyWorkForYou, invited me in as a beta tester many months ago and I was able to print my first box for a nominal sum. I wasn't expecting much, but in the intervening months I've found that everyone I've given a card to has reacted to them. I just got my second and third box of cards from Moo (at full price, and gladly). They help me to stick in the minds of the people I meet, and that's valuable.
My favourite two images to put on the cards are the sea, which I hand out with the comment "this is why I moved back to New Zealand", and my kids which I use with other parents who know me as "William's dad" and therefore find it easier to key me off a picture of William. In my second and third boxes, I ordered more pictures of the landscape (ooh, pretty) and of my kids (ooh, pretty).
Now, of course, it's easy for me to use Moo cards to stand out in New Zealand where perhaps the shipping means most people haven't got their own Moo cards. A question for readers: are you seeing many Moo cards in the wild in the UK and US? Are they still exotic, or are they now as common as Hugh McLeod cartoons? And if you have Moo cards, what image(s) did you put on them?
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Comments: 14
Ha - my Moo cards arrived this morning (I am UK based). I got a selection of classic Penguin covers printed on the back to use as alternative business cards.
Jeremy
Mine arrived last week, I'm in London. Because of the (great) exchange rate, I was able to purchase a 'sample' pack using a pool of our company's client work, which has *just* been uploaded to Flickr. The cards have been very well received internally, I expect to use them a lot more in the coming 18 months.
The universal comment has been 'The quality is very good', clearly we have been delighted. We definitely heart Moo.
Moo cards are one of those things that would seem immensely popular if you read tech blogs a lot or hang out with people that do. Otherwise, nobody has heard of them. For that matter, most people I know haven't heard of Hugh McLeod either.
I've been using them since October as a handout for a public sketchblogging project (www.museumdrawing.com), and am already on my second box. I put a sketch and URL on the front, with contact info on the back.
I'm delighted by people's response to them - they see me drawing in the museums, comment, and the Moo card is the perfect not-too-formal piece to give them, so that they can see the website when they get home. Thanks, Moo!
I just order some with pictures I had taken around Fenway Park and my Boston Red Sox blog url http://www.redsoxtimes.com on the back. Can wait for them to arrive!!
I think Moo cards rock, though like Chris said above, I've only seen them around the tech/blogging circles I hang with. And yeah, the same is true with my own cards.
But I could certainly see Moo cards expanding beyond those circles, a tipping point being reached etc. Far easier than I could see the same thing happening to me.
My boyfriend and I used them as wedding announcements (with the url for the invite info on the back). Distinctive, easy to distribute, and a heck of a lot cheaper than regular invitations!
Whoa, that is a great idea nina! I never thought of using it for something like that.
I haven't yet received a Moo card in Brussels, Belgium. I similarly use landscapes (of places I've visited), or alternatively school kids (as I work in education).
I'm a fellow New Zealander Nat and I concur that everyone I have handed them too has been very impressed.
I have one recommendation though, don't put the flickr logo on your cards, not one has heard of that either! You won't believe how many people I have had to explain the concept of online photo sharing to...
- James
I bought a box last year to hand out at conferences I was speaking at. They have been a HUGE hit! I blogged about MOO back then too and still have only rcvd one other person's MOO card since.
I created a collage of my online personas SecondLife avatar, WoW Character, and cartoon image of me. People are very impressed with the little cards and yes it makes me stand out.
i just don't get them...sorry. But why is it so interesting to have a mini business card with images on it? I can go to any printing company online and submit images and text to be printed on any size card...these silly things just clutter up my wallet, get lost in the cracks in my coat pocket and are generally too small to have anything really useful on it...i think this is a company that needs a real business plan or a quick exit strategy...
I love my Moo cards as much as Nat. I'm in Australia, and I'm the only person I know with them. I got two boxes when I ordered - one with a 50/50 split of the two different color versions I use for my company logo, and another with 25 mixed photos (daughter, wife, plants, mountains, etc.). I probably wen overboard on the pics and will be more choosy next time.
They get comments about their cool factor every time I hand one over and people are always asking how they can get them.
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Matt Turner [01.09.07 04:03 AM]
I got a selection when they were doing the free taste, no-one i've handed them out to in San Francsico or Southampton here in the UK has heard of them.
Maybe they just don't like photo-sharing fun.
Also, yes, Moo is awesome!