Maggie Shiles, Tech Journalist for The BBC, has posted an interesting article on the excellent dot.life blog; all about the hype surrounding the new Apple iPhone. You can read it by clicking here.
Maggie is a superb Writer, but the reason I mention this is because here in the UK, the BBC are not allowed to advertise. As well as being a technology blogger, I am the owner of a very successful international marketing business and have over 20 years experience in marketing. In my opinion, the article or ‘blog post’ reads way too much like pre-launch marketing.
Pre-launch marketing?
Companies pay marketing and PR people to generate a ‘buzz’ about a new product or service BEFORE it’s launched. This way, the launch goes with a bang and stacks of sales are made. Think of the kind of thing we saw before the launch of; the last iPhone, GTA 4 or the last Harry Potter book and you will get an idea of what pre-launch is all about!
News?
By reporting on the ‘hype’ surrounding the new iPhone – the BBC, who are the world’s largest news organisation, is giving Apple even more pre-launch coverage and creating even more hype! One of the comments on the blog says; “so, when there’s nothing to report, you report nothing?” I think this is because the article reads too much like ‘yet another’ promo piece for Apple.
A request
I have asked the BBC, through their blog, how this works. When is it OK to add fuel to the pre-launch hype in the name of news – And when it crosses the line into pre-launch marketing.
If YOU know the answer or have any feedback, please let me know.
Related posts:
UPDATE:
Since asking the question in the BBC blog, no one has answered? I am still no wiser, nor are the other BBC blog readers, as to why Apple are getting so much pre-launch coverage!
Hi Jim
I’m not sure what I get from Maggie’s post, it’s almost reporting on the fact that there is no news.
The Apple conference is big news, even if some people don’t like Apple or it’s products. But they do produce very useable and stable devices, although i don’t have an iphone, I do have a Mac and have had it about a year after many frustrating years using Windows.
As to whether it’s advertising or not, i don’t know. It hardly gives the new iphone or the current iphone the thumbs up.
But, it does seem to be a strange piece of ‘here’s the news, there’s no news’.
Hello Steve,
I don’t think it is an advertisement in the most obvious sense, but it is certainly giving the pre-launch buzz a great deal of publicity.
As I said in my post, it’s not an Apple thing; I believe other very large ‘media friendly’ companies would also have been given free publicity, in similar circumstances.
My question, which no one yet has answered, is; when does pre-launch publicity become an advertisement?
It is worth considering that in the BBC blog, you or I are not even allowed to have a username, which is linked to our business or our products! The BBC are extremely strict about allowing anyone any form of publicity in their blogs; then they post a massive pre-launch publicity piece for Apple????
Since the original post was published by the BBC, there has still been no comment.
They have also now given iPhone an MORE POWERFUL piece of free pre-launch publicity (advertising) in the ‘technology news’ section of the main BBC website.
That page of coverage is priceless as you or I could not buy it - if we could, it would be worth 6 figures – especially this close to a launch of a product that has sold so very poorly in the UK.