Esperanto-USA

Actually, I remember a few years ago posting the idea about Google advertising and then Tim Westover took over the execution of it. But, it doesn't matter where the credit lies, I'm very happy for it, and it's really great seeing how Google is encouraging ELNA to do much more effective marketing campaigns! I really wish UEA/TEJO could use this resource, but it's only available to USA non-profits.

I also thought of the term "American Imperialism". Although I think in the long run, the terms on languages will probably be the most successful ones, so I would say to concentrate on them. We want to get people who are already planning to learn a language online. I believe those will be most likely to learn Esperanto online, but of course, the general exposure to the public to show that Esperanto isn't dead is, of course, critical as well.

This is off-topic, but if ELNA really wants to promote Esperanto locally, I would high recommend organizing Language Festivals. In all of my years (not many, I know, but I've seen a lot), the most effective way to get people interested in Esperanto is through Language Festivals. The general public sees that Eo speakers are not just interested in Eo, but in languages in general, and helps educate the public about multilingualism at the same time, shows that Esperanto really works (instead of just having a slogan that says so) and people respect Esperanto, because they know that Eo speakers organized it. All in all, a very positive effect for one event!

I would also like to mention that the ELNA conference is great for getting people who already speak Esperanto, but I was quite disappointed that hardly anyone from the "outside" came nor did I see any journalists there on the open night. Then again, had they came, they would not have been able to understand anything, because nothing was in English: i.e. there was no brochure for them, etc. Actually, something that might also work well is to make one day of the ELNA conference a Language Festival. We Eo speakers already know a lot of languages and would be able to present them to non-Eo speakers in a fun way.

But really, it depends on what our goal is. If the most important thing is to improve the language level of ELNA members, leave the ELNA conference as it is. If we, however, want to attract people to the language, the ELNA conference has to change quite significantly. I also may have been spoiled since I have attended so many amazing Eo youth events abroad (in Brazil, Europe and Russia) and I generally don't attend the "adult" events, because they just aren't nearly as interesting nor as much fun.

In any case, best of luck with the Google ads, but remember that marketing shouldn't stop with Google, but needs a larger marketing strategy and vision (and yes, ads for ELNA on Amikumu would probably not be a bad idea and also not very expensive). In any case, I am very glad that Google is helping ELNA get on track with marketing.

Minority language rights, dying languages, English dominance, everybody speaks English, oppressed languages, how many people speak English, the rich get richer

Babel, Tower of Babel, language problem, too many languages, many languages

geek hobby/ies, geek interest/s, language geek/s, language geekery, interesting language/s, intellectual hobby/ies, elegant language/s, consistent language/s, logical language/s (if Lojban isn't already snagging that term :)

learn something new, brain exercises, stretch your brain, expand your horizons, mental exercise

international language(s), international travel, international friendship, auxiliary language(s)

Baha'i language, Baha'i Esperanto, etc

To kavaliro's list of science fiction ideas, add Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series - Esperanto is used by the characters (since the idea of the series is that people from many cultures and time periods are all thrown together). Maybe search terms for Philip Jose Farmer, Riverworld, Riverworld language, Riverworld Esperanto, etc.

I would say go with famous people who are Esperantists. George Soros, Forrest J. Ackerman, , J.R.R. Tolkien (maybe a stretch, but there are many articles mentioning fact that he liked Esperanto,) William Auld, Michael Jackson, William Shatner.
"Star Trek" is a great search term to target, too, along with "Gene Roddenberry," since he was an esperantist, mentioned that the "common tongue" of Star Trek was Esperanto, and even named a Star Trek planet "Esperanto." I'd say "star trek languages" would be a great one too. I've used that one a few times. It's how I initially found the Klingon Language Institute, which got me interested in conlangs, which eventually led me to Esperanto. We could skip the middleman. A tagline like, "Learn the 'Common Tongue' of the Star Trek universe!" might be good.

Another great term would be "Red Cross," linking to the article on the Red Cross website about how Esperanto was used by the Red Cross in WWI and WWII.

For that matter, "holocaust" would be a good one. Students in school doing research for essays might become intrigued by the fact that Esperantists were persecuted along with the Jews, and that could be the seed that gets them started on their journey through Esperantoland. Any similar links to topics a student might research which relate back to Esperanto might likewise do well.

I'd say also bid for "language learning," "linguistics," "United Nations language(s)," "international communication" "European Union language(s)," "secret language," "conlang(s)," "Bahaai," possibly "crocodile," "Blade III," and "Gattica."

Any TV show that's mentioned or used Esperanto would be fair game. For instance, the cartoon "Danny Phantom" had an episode, "Public Enemies," with a ghost wolf who spoke esperanto. Tucker, one of the main characters, also spoke it. There are lots of shows with little references to Esperanto. If a show mentioned Esperanto positively, they likely won't mind at all, and if they mentioned Esperanto negatively, well, they opened the can of worms, so they'll just have to deal with what pops out. Of course we'd drop the ad if they complained, but the resulting digg article would be way more valuable than the ad could ever be.(evil grin.)

Okay, in reality I'd consider that last idea a lot more before I made a decision to do it. But this is a brainstorming thread, after all.