Make “The Wait” Less Boring
The iPhone 4 is dropping tomorrow, and if you read my Virtual Lines post from last week, or remember the past iPhone launches, you know there is going to be an insane line up of folks just dying to get their paws on the new “it” gadget. There are more opportunities as a result of the lines than meets the “i” (get it?).
If you have a product you think can be beneficial to those waiting for hours on line, well bring it! It can be anything, as long as it adds to the experience of waiting. Maybe you have an energy drink, or a cool game on just about every app store people can play on their phones. Bring your product to the line and the chances of people talking about your product should be fairly high. I can see it now: people chugging an energy drink with one hand while playing some other dude’s game on their phone in the other hand. Multi-tasking at its finest.
Tons of people can bring things and it’ll be more of a party and social gathering than a line of individuals counting down until 7 AM tomorrow morning. Here are a few tips to make sure you’re going about it the right away and not soliciting.
1. Make sure you’re actually getting and waiting for the iPhone tomorrow. If you’re not, you’ll look like a street team handing out samples; while that may still get the “waiters” to talk about you, you risk looking disingenuous.
2. Don’t bring anything that will make a mess or will make noise/commotion, so leave your vuvuzela’s home!
3. Bring a fair amount of the product, unless it’s digital, in which case, you can’t control the amount. But if you are bringing drinks for example and think there will be 100 people on the line, bring around 40-50 drinks or so. You don’t want to have extras with you when the doors open, and ideally you don’t want everybody to get one. You do however want everybody to wish they got one. Regrets only, remember?
4. If you’re handing out the product, stay put at your place in line. Make other’s come up to you to grab whatever it is you’re sharing or have people pass it up and down the line without moving. Remember, you have something for them, it isn’t the other way around. If you go up those waiting, you’re going to look like a marketer, not a friend.
5. Lastly, just make sure you’re doing something for the people on line, not for yourself.
There will be tons of early adopters who will be on line who are always on the look out for the next cool thing. If your product is one of them, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to share it with these individuals. Grab some samples and get there, you only have a few hours before you need to lineup, unless of course, your spot is reserved.
