O2’s perfect iPhone storm

Good grief. Today was a win for the marketing consultants over the (usually) rational British Public.

But what exactly happened?

1. O2 opened their website for ‘early upgrading’ to the new iPhone 3G with an SMS to customers this morning.
2. Their website goes down almost immediately.
3. Lo and behold, they’ve ’sold out’!

If you can’t see this for the classical marketing ploy it is, well… I don’t know what.

O2, most likely guided by a PR firm, are blatantly trying to stir up even more press over the upcoming iPhone 3G release by creating this ’sell-out’ story.

Engineered, every part of it. They have a big list of people who are eager enough to sign up online. They have a system which can allow only a certain number of individuals to ‘upgrade’ to the new phone. Their marketing department are saying they need to ramp up this launch even more than last year; they need more buzz.

Put the pieces together! The server going down/reaching ’sell-out’ state so quickly is deliberate. They know demand, all they have to do is to reduce ’supply’ to something quite a bit lower. (I don’t even think O2 have commented on how many customers managed to update this morning.) In the absence of all the press over the launch of the original iPhone, O2 have had to think fast and stir up some attention to beef up their revenue.

O2 have said all along that they expect demand for the iPhone 3G to be extreme. I don’t doubt it’ll be considerable. But the hints in all of their marketing so far which lead readers to believe all models will sell within minutes of launch quite simply stink of buzz-manufacturing.

A chance to learn?

To be honest, I’m a little shrewd when it comes to things like this. I dislike little more than companies taking consumers for a ride without cause, particularly when it’s so clearly a lame (yet evidently successful) attempt.

Despite this, I must admit they’ve pulled it off well… and I think that anyone in business should stop and look at what has occurred here today.

After all, even The Guardian fell for it.