Early indications are that the iPhone 3GS launch has been a success - there were "100,000s of pre-orders" and, thanks to Apple's pre-launch reservations and purchases, the experience was clean and efficient. But just as consumers waited in line for their shiny new iPhone, advertisers prepared the launch and the marketing onslaught is everywhere.
Visit any tech blog and you'll see a swarm of ads for:
- iPhone 3GS-compatible accessories (ie skins and cases)
- iPhone competitors (namely the Palm Pre)
- Phone carriers (Sprint and T-Mobile are trying to capture attention)
My personal favorite:
This is good too... as *everything* comes off as an ad:
Palm: -6.5%
Sprint: -2.9%
Apple: -0.6% (rebounded from -3% after WWDC)
AT&T: -0.3%
You will notice in the below chart that the market's reaction occurred before Apple's keynote (which was relatively expected materials) and actually rebounded as the day progressed... suggesting that the movement was rather a reaction to the Pre's weekend sales:
11 days and 7 hours remain until the much-anticipated Palm Pre launch... at least that's what Sprint's ad campaign has drilled in my head (again and again). The ads are running on sponsorships across major blogs, through Google AdSense, on Facebook & social media sites and now on TV.
And hats off to Sprint - who I have criticized before for poor marketing and being out of touch with consumers.
Meet the Palm Pre campaign:
- the campaign is savvy and dynamic (including countdown timers, Twitter searches, media mentions, etc)
- the ad layouts (see now.sprint.com) give the appearance of desktop / mobile widgets... which is what makes the Palm Pre so appealing to consumers
- terrific utilization of social media - from YouTube, to Twitter to popular blogs (like Engadget and CNET)
- sharp, integrated ad units that connect with one another and the on-Sprint.com efforts
- the larger "This is Now" campaign, under which the Palm Pre campaign is nested, does a better job than RIM's efforts of conveying the aliveness of the network - and the handset's ability to play a role in managing your activities (from critical events like email and calendaring to social events like video and Twitter)
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Of course, it is also great that Sprint has an integrated widget campaign... although:
- they do not use Widgetbox (!) and their homemade widget installer is clunky and unintuitive
- before grabbing the widget, a user needs to agree to terms & conditions... bizarre and clearly not good for virality
- users cannot grab the widget "in the wild" - they must visit Sprint, agree to terms and then take the embed code
