The technology sector is such a competitive space that companies can no longer just rely on standard advertising and publicity methods to attract attention.
Big gestures are becoming more and more necessary to get noticed, but big doesn’t always mean successful. Anyone remember LG’s balloon fiasco last year? These companies have gone that extra mile and succeeded where so many others have failed…
Amazon Prime Air drone delivery
Despite this not actually being a functioning service yet, Amazon managed to create quite a buzz around the potential of a 30 minute drone delivery service.
Amazon filmed its warehouse packaging up an order and having it picked up by a small drone helicopter and delivering it straight to the customer’s front door.
To maximise impact, Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, made the announcement on American television on ‘Cyber Monday’ of December 2013 as millions logged on online to start their Christmas shopping.
Bezos says that the service could be in action as soon as 2015. Now let’s see how long it takes to get clearance from air traffic control…
Google Glass on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week
When the hype around Google Glass was first emerging in 2012, there was a lot of speculation around how fashionable the device could actually be – would anyone ever wear them?
Enter a clever PR collaboration between Google and designer Diane von Furstenberg at New York Fashion Week. The models paraded down the catwalk wearing von Furstenberg’s designs with a set of co-ordinated Google Glass, which recorded footage from the models’ perspectives to make into a short film.
Google was also present off the catwalk, with fashion royalty Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker sporting the wearable tech in the audience.
‘Ultimate selfie’ at the Oscar’s on a Samsung Galaxy
As well as being sponsors of the 2014 Oscar Awards Ceremony, Samsung were lucky enough that host Ellen DeGeneres had a Galaxy Note 3 to capture highlights of the event.
What Samsung didn’t count on, was DeGeneres getting the ‘ultimate selfie’, as it was later dubbed by the media, when she managed to get eleven of Hollywood’s biggest stars (and Lupita Nyongo’s brother) in one picture.
Degeneres handed the smartphone over to Bradley Cooper who managed to get stars including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie all in the frame.
The picture went on to break Twitter records, being retweeted more than 2.7 million times and broke the social networking site due to such a heavy traffic increase.
Sony PlayStation takes over London’s OXO Tower
In the build up to the release of the PlayStation 4 in November 2013, Sony needed to make sure its console caught the eyes of those who were torn between buying from them or the rival Xbox One from Microsoft.
Sony decided to make their mark on London, quite literally, by emblazoning the skyline with the PlayStation control icons. The OXO Tower on Southbank had its iconic red light letters overwritten with a cross, square and triangle, although conveniently the red circle could be left in place.
This tech PR stunt remains quite vivid in my mind as it could be seen from the CBR office!
Angry Birds Asian Air Challenge
As the addictive Angry Birds game was reaching the height of its popularity, game developer Rovio took the game’s players to new heights too: 33,000 ft in fact.
In September 2011, eight superfans of the mobile game took part in what Rovio described as ‘the longest, highest Angry Birds flight’ on board a plane that flew from Rovio’s native Finland to Singapore.
The Angry Birds Asian Challenge was a bid to see Rovio push the game into the Asian market and they went all out with the plane and even the air stewards decked out in Angry Bird memorabilia.
