The weekly com.motion TD&F Special Teams is from me, on the one thing that has been engulfing the social media space. Without being too much of a self-serving, self-satisfied narcissist, the opening line is one of my better pieces of work.
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Apple announcement day is to geeks what New Years Eve is to drinkers – it’s when all the amateurs come out of the woodwork. This week was no exception as Apple CEO Steve Jobs finally ended months of speculation and announced the latest in the iPod franchise – the iPad tablet computer. The social media space has literally been throbbing with excitement trying to predict what Jobs would announce – to the point where the product itself didn’t even matter, just the dimly held view that there was going to be a product. “Leaks” have been published, analysed and dismissed on an almost daily basis as Apple’s communications and marketing strategy of staying silent continued to fuel the online excitement. On launch day, the corner of the Internet usually reserved for geeks and propeller heads was invaded by normally rational citizens wanting to know the very second the announcement was made.
The microblogging platform Twitter and the popular blog Engadget strained under the weight of users … and their expectations as the launch was reported in real-time. Finally, following the launch, the iPad is the lead story on radio, TV, print and online publications around the world.
Whether the product can live up to all this hype is not a matter for TD&F (which has already purchased 76 iPads and counting). It’s a no brainer to give this almost perfectly executed strategy of silence a Touchdown (see “Quickdraw’ Fumble by my colleague Orli). After all, it’s hard to think of a consumer electronics device which has gotten more publicity, before, during and after its launch.
Oh wait, there was this phone a few years ago…
Original post over at the TD&F blog:Touchdowns & Fumbles: VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN – iWANT, iPAD, iTOUCHDOWN.
January 29, 2010 at 5:06 pm |
[...] 2010-01-29T13:05:47 my td+f for this week on…what else, the iPad. my verdict? a communications touchdown! [link to post] [...]
January 29, 2010 at 5:32 pm |
[...] 2010-01-29T13:31:53 @jay_scull here it is: my td+f for this week on…what else, the iPad. my verdict? a communications touchdown! [link to post] [...]
January 29, 2010 at 6:33 pm |
[...] @edlee Just read td+f. Great post! [link to post] [...]
January 29, 2010 at 6:57 pm |
I give this post a fumble – you overhyped it in your intro, and your cheesy closing line was disappointing.
I’d like to say that this certainly won’t be vintage “Blogging Me, Blogging You” material but the internet never forgets.
January 29, 2010 at 11:00 pm |
Geez, if publicity is all you want… All you need to do is hide your kid in the garage and let loose a balloon.
That would get’em talk’n.
No… the product has to deliver. Hype can backfire if the product fails to live up to expectation. It’s bad PR to control the message so much that features that border on science fiction are expected.
That said, I’m sure it will sell plenty. And it is a game changer, etc. etc. But i predict apple isn’t going to “own” the tablet market they way they do with ipod. This one is too easy to better.
collin
January 30, 2010 at 12:47 pm |
good comment parker – i’m happy to have this stand the test of time. however its pretty much standard @parkernow fare – rampant homo eroticism disguised as cynicism.
February 7, 2010 at 2:59 am |
I agree with Collin, from a communications stand point, bravo on Apple’s part, they did the rights things, pursed the proper channels and avenues to build the hype. Marketing and communications strategists get a standing ovation. But now the iPad must deliver, Sony is already set to launch it’s itablet. The difference previous Apple releases have been the impact they’ve made in their respective domains from IPOD, IPHONES, even MAC’s in general. Tablet PC’s have been around for a quite a while now, how revolutionary is the iPad is still left to be seen. It will be interesting to see how Apple reacts if indeed the iPad is a flop.
The implementation of the proper communications channels may save the product. It might have been a better idea to send out a beta version, and receive some feedback on the product before launching it mainstream.