Square, the mobile payment company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has fittingly put a big billboard up in New York’s Times Square. Such aggressive marketing is a big change from the San Francisco-based company’s past strategy. Last week, COO Keith Rabois told Fast Company of the difficulties of creating awareness for the young startup. “Not everyone knows about Square, but everyone should,” he said. “Our job is to communicate that, and some of that communication–particularly when we’re talking about communicating to 180 million Americans–cost some amount of money.”
And at the time, it was money Square wasn’t necessarily willing to drop. According to Rabois, Square’s marketing budget in January: a measly $3,000. That’s a far cry from the tens of thousands of dollars a Times Square advertisement typically costs, though a Square spokesperson tells us the billboards were actually a gift to the company and didn’t cost them anything.
via Fast Company.