You Decide: How Can Sprint Go Pinko?
So...check this out...I get quite a few solicitations for site reviews, but I received my first ever product review solicitation today.
The beauty of product reviews is that you actually get offered free stuff. Free stuff?! Way cool. I've always been envious (read: jealous) of people who get free stuff just for being them. I mean, we all have a voice, right? We all are carriers of word of mouth. We all have valuable feedback. Why would one person be any more important than the other?
So, when I read that I made Sprint's Ambassador Program and that I'd be getting a fancy new Samsung a920, I thought, "Wo-hoo!" Then I had a second thought (aided by a conversation with my PiC, who was my devil's advocate)..."This isn't right." Nope. The only reason I received the solicitation is because I have a certain number of readers or my standing on Technorati shows that I'm authorative in some computer-generated algorithm.
What do I know about cell phones? I know my Treo sux. I know I'm envious of Chris's Blackberry. I know if I couldn't afford to buy either of them if my work didn't provide it, but I should stop complaining because I'm pretty lucky to have internet access almost anywhere in the world.
So...I was going to turn it down. Ignore it.
Then I came up with another idea. Why don't I ask the people reading my blog to come up with a campaign for Sprint: a campaign where Sprint could be more democratic in their promotions (and less elitist). A campaign where they could leverage the whole community instead of just a few voices. How can Sprint go Pinko?
Add your idea to the wiki, then we'll vote on it. The person with the best Pinko campaign wins the cell phone with 6 months of free unlimited access! The winner can either provide feedback to sprint (I'll give the login as well) or just enjoy the phone (at the end, you can sell it or buy a plan)!
What do you think? ;)
::Personally, I think that they are about to achieve something WAY more valuable than sending a fairly well-read blogger a phone and hoping they blog it...
14 Comments:
(meekly) I love my treo...
It's interesting that your headline for this posting is about Sprint but the photo shows Bell Canada on the phone as the service provider.
@estelle,
It is interesting, isn't it? ;)
Good spot...!
Tara keep in mind that the program is only available for people living in certain markets. This is something they don't tell you upfront, and that I had to learn the hard way when I tried to go online to activate mine. I want to say that it only works in 30 markets, I think that was the number.
Hi Tara, "unmarketing" has to be the best turn of phrase I have heard in a long time - and describes perfectly your idea abotu the phone!
Being fairly new to this blog, I wasn't quite up to date with the logic behind it.
So, having got up to speed and now thinking of names for the re-brand, Unmarketing is the most obvious choice.
Celebrity endorsements have worked for ages (look at myspace) but lack any real ooomph about the actual product itself.
Paris Hilton had a Sidekick (no, not the dog or Nicole!!!) but did the masses sign-up to it because it looked good or she had it? No. (At leats not in the UK).
Its relative failure in the UK was largely down to the fact that peope were unsure about the technology and that Paris Hilton did NOTHING to convince anyone that actually, yes it is new and different BUT it is easy to use etc.
Your idea to offer it out is a great one, hopefully ensuring that many others will blog about it too (generating more publicity than you alone would achieve), thereby taking the pinko route of turning a traditional "celebrity endorsement" on its head yet still achieving the same effect - perhaps more.
After all, you would blog about the phone once or twice, but then not need to again.
Your audience would see it briefly and then it would move on.
You have created true word of mouth (albeit that starts with something for nothing which always helps!!).
Pinko marketing rocks!!!
Saw the article on Riya in this morning's USA Today. Hope to hear how much that spikes traffic and signups.
It's not by your standing. I think it's the voice you have online....and from what I've gathered from blogs who have taken them up...if you ask to be invited...they invite you....not very elitist at all.
And I'm about as C-list as you can get (or D...or E...etc.)and they invited me without any provocation. I don't think it's your ranking...i really can't figure out what causes it.
Either way, I'm doing it...it's a neat phone...but I'm having problems...check it out - http://shotgunconcepts.blogspot.com/2006/03/sprint-swag.html
Chris Houchens :: Website :: Blog
Having worked at Sprint for 5 years, let me say it will be tough. Especially right now post merger. However, as far as a Pinko pitch, Sprint needs to realize that they have more network bandwidth than anyone. They also need to realize that unutilized bandwidth doesn't help their consumers or the company. If they would cheapen their data plans they could capture large marketshare almost immediately.
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Also, I have this phone. It has blazing EVDO speeds, bluetooth, flash 1.3mp camera,etc,etc. It can't use purchased or uploaded songs as ringtones but there is a workaround (just convert your soundclip to .m4a). This hardware was a major step in the right direction.
The byline of 'peaking' thought: Make it for speed and rapidity of movement, and best quality, not for everybody. JUST THOSE THAT GET IT. See it, and BUY IT. This is a slowload, but cellphones soon obsolete.
http://www.eyewindows.com/videos/yes.mov
Just in D.C., realized the place is a theme park, and needs to move to an Arcosanti combined with Dune and flavored with a Starship type structure that moves across the landscape. That is the government and all the bureaucracy, and the lobbyists. The People have the button to destruct.
Deep down it sounds like you already know that no matter how you spin it, there's no such thing as free lunch or a free phone.
Last I heard is that they are sending out up to 10,000 of these. I have one, almost everyone I know here has one, appreciate the gesture I guess.
OK. I took you up on your challenege and posted an idea. On the wiki too, of course. Where are everyone else's? At this rate, I'm going to win by default =)
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