According to tens of millions of dollars worth of FREE publicity, Apple Inc might be about to launch some kind of Apple Tablet computer this week.
Isn’t that amazing?
No, not the idea of an Apple Tablet!
I’m talking about the only hard fact in this whole story – the FACT that once again, Apple Inc has managed to generate multi-millions worth of free publicity and pre-launch advertising, for a product that not only doesn’t officially exist – it’s not even been announced at the time of writing this.
That’s one heck of an achievement!
To give an idea of just how smart the PR guys at Apple are, they have once again managed to get the BBC swept up in the hype surrounding their new product. This gift from the BBC is priceless, as you (literally) can not buy advertising on the bbc.co.uk website.
In my opinion, the BBC are not doing anything wrong with their reporting of this (though many disagree). The BBC need to cover the rumours surrounding the device, because the actual rumours themselves have now become news – Kudos to Apple!
The lesson here?
For anyone seeking to generate free, word of mouth publicity for their business, there’s a lesson here. If you want people to remark on you, you need to be remarkable. Apple would not have got this coverage, without a great track record for innovation, design and service. That reputation generates expectancy. So long as Apple keep meeting those expectations, the word of mouth will continue, from their loyal and vocal customer base.
Just for fun, check out how many free mentions you see for the new Apple device this week; including this one of course!