I don't think bitcoin is all that well known.
People who read those recent news stories about bitcoin are a minority in the world, and not everyone is really into those kinds of topics, so I think bitcoin may be somewhat known amongst a minority of people but that is about it.
There are alt-coins, and some of them are much less known that the name 'bitcoin'.
Have you wondered about any of the alt-coins?
I got involved with Goldcoin myself, and I think GLDcoin may enjoy a steep increase in similtude to bitcoin.
There isn't really much difference between bitcoin and GLDcoin. bitcoin is much more expensive though, so any percentage increases in bitcoin are likely to be much smaller than percentage increases in Goldcoin.
gldtalk.org -Goldcoin forum