Every once in a while, I am reminded of a lesson I learned in politics from Media Profile’s “Chaise”, Patrick Gossage. He told me that if the opponents were talking about your candidate, you were winning. Same goes for big brands.
This week, RIM was criticized for a “stealth marketing” campaign in Australia that was pointedly anti-Apple. It was intended to create buzz in anticipation of the company’s new operating system, scheduled to be released in the following days. It certainly created buzz – a bad buzz. Which is a shame. At subsequent events, RIM got some positive coverage from teaser previews of its new operating system, but the positive attention was overshadowed by the negative buzz around their very odd “Wake Up” campaign.
The end result is that Apple received a ringing endorsement from RIM that they are, and will continue to be, the market leader. The lesson learned is that RIM got a better quality of attention talking about itself than it did talking about its competitors.
