They could have spent a ton of dough building one booth amongst many. Instead, Aliph set up shop at the CES concierge desk to trade Jawbone noise-eliminating Bluetooth headsets with anyone willing to give up their existing model.
The strategy is genius on many levels (and reminds me a bit of TiVo’s VCR funeral). By giving headsets away to this crowd, Aliph obviously stands behind their product. And because the Jawbone has a distinctive design, they’ve managed to recruit hundreds (if not more) technology influencers to advertise. Lastly, the press loves to talk about frenzied giveaways.
Ironically, I specifically left my new Blueant Z9 at home on the kitchen counter due to some serious static issues. Though the Jawbone is a bit larger than I’d like, I’d have made the trade. The Blueant rep I spoke to at the show was surprised with my experiences and suggested I give support a call for an exchange.
Yeah, if I’d’ve known about that ahead of time I would’ve brought my broken Jabra headset to trade. :-) (I dropped it and it cracked the plastic tip, leaving a sharp bit that pokes me, so I stopped using it.)
And now they’re putting all the exchanged headsets on eBay to pay for next year’s booth?
I was talking to someone about that (maybe Tofel?) – wondering if they’d be refurbed and sold on ebay or similar via a third party. I’m sure they could generate a few bucks, but it’s probably not the marketing image they’d want if the news ever became public.
Sounds like a good gimmick. What I hate about free stuff at huge tradeshows are the long lines.
At a trade show last year, I waited on line for 15 minutes to get a free hot dog.
Correction: Most unsanitary use of marketing dollars, bordering on a Level 1 biohazard. ( Gross!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohazard