A super soaraway stunt – future gazing remains timeless
This week has seen widespread media coverage of an excellent stunt by Amazon, all timed to perfection for the company’s objectives.
For those unaware of it, Amazon announced that it was testing the use of miniature, unmanned ‘drones’ to deliver small packages – claiming these could achieve delivery times of 30 minutes. It did this during a CBS interview with Jeff Bezos, Amazon having given what was described as “unprecedented access” to cameras from the station’s 60 Minutes programme.
During the course of the piece, the key messages came thick and fast, including lines that Amazon doesn’t put prices up as that would erode consumer trust, it invests profits back into the business in preference to paying large dividends, and it’s moving into grocery and fashion, along with the soundbite that “everything you want from earth you can get from us.”
All excellent coverage after a period when media commentary about the company hasn’t been entirely flattering.
The segment that has made the news worldwide, however, was Jeff Bezos revealing the drone plan and his belief that this could come to fruition in four to five years. Since then, Amazon’s footage –CBS didn’t get any of its own film of the drones in action – has appeared all over the web, tapping into our love of anything futuristic.
Most pieces have given a nod to the fact that this plan has a huge number of hurdles to overcome before it could ever see the light of day. But it doesn’t really matter whether it can be done or not, or how soon, what matters is the fact that the online commentary has all been about Amazon, handily coinciding with that other online trend of this week, Cyber Monday.
And it’s not a random stunt with coverage for the sake of it – it’s directly focused on the heart of their business – that of delivery and innovation. Whether it will become a reality, these messages have come through loud and clear. Of course, Amazon has historically been very guarded about its innovations in advance of their launch. One might ponder on the company’s differing levels of openness between the drones and the developments being carried out in what was termed their ‘secret lab’.
It brings to mind a campaign Domino’s carried out a decade ago, testing different types of delivery options, including delivering pizza by hoverboard. Funnily enough, they don’t appear to have become crucial to Domino’s business in the years since…