A PR person’s dream
Looking at my email I think a PR person’s dream is to have me as a captive audience so that he or she can bring clients by and get them to see their stuff.
So, today, their dream will be realized. I’ll be a captive of a line in front of the Palo Alto University Ave Apple store. Come by, say hi, wait in line for an iPhone. Or just pitch me on your clients’ stuff. I’ll be there from about 11 a.m. today through 6 p.m. tomorrow.
Extra credit to PR folks who bring me Starbucks (latte!) or other goodies. Bring some to share. Heheh.
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June 28th, 2007 at 8:27 am
[...] Original post by Robert Scoble [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Wait - you’re going to wait in line now? As in: you’ll be camping out overnight?
June 28th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Why would you do this anyway? It seems like a total waste of your time? It’s a phone for Christ sake.
Surely you are past wanting be one of the people with the cool phone first? Or even encouraging Patrick to be in that “I am a sheep”
mindset (I suspect he has enough in peer pressure anyway without your involvement)?
I guess maybe you can turn it into a PR event for you and Podtech? Any other reason?
June 28th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Will you be wearing a camera pls. It will be fun to watch people in line when there’s nothing to do ..
June 28th, 2007 at 8:42 am
The iPhone hype has truly boggled my mind. Why in the world do people stand in long lines to buy a product that 6 months from now, will be discontinued when a new model appears? Consumerism at its basest level.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:56 am
If I convince myself to get an iPhone, I’ll make my first call on it to you tomorrow while you are still in line. Could almost have a competition–who will be the first to call Scoble on an iPhone (while he is still waiting in line)
June 28th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Mr. Scoble, take your MacBook + EVDO card. Activate the iPhone(s) before you hit the car. Patrick will be so-o-o-o-o-o happy.
Wonder if there are any startups going to work the lines with free water/cookies with promo labels on them? Bottled water with a Plaxo.com label on it? Might be lame… still… captive audience that’ll be itching for a Web2.0 app to try on their new iPhone.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:16 am
What’s next after this? Standing on a corner on Sand Hill Road with a sandwich board and your camera? Things not going so well at PodTech that you now have to beg for stories?
June 28th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Good luck Scoble and Jr. Envy you Americans getting the iPhone tomorrow - I’ll be queuing when it comes to the UK!
June 28th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Just maybe I’ll see you in line - though I have nothing to pitch :-)
June 28th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Scandalous, simply scandalous! Of course, if I were able to put a similar call out, I probably would. But like some of the comments left here, I’d want to capture it and rebroadcast. Maybe get Justin.tv to hang out with you a while.
The last time I did an all nighter in line was to get Prince Tix to the Cow Palace for the 1999 tour. Was very happy to have simply gotten them, only to find that when I got there, I was literally in the worst seats in the place: top most level geometrically the furthest possible point away from the stage!
Needless to say, I was young enough then to get away with sneaking down and finding better seats. I hope your phone works well, and isn’t lemon! ;)
June 28th, 2007 at 10:09 am
“Extra credit to PR folks who bring me Starbucks (latte!) or other goodies. Bring some to share. Heheh.”
I’d hate to see Scoble at an all you can eat buffet.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:22 am
This will definitely be a good opportunity to catch Robert in a state where he is part of our target demographic!!
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/27/when-youve-got-to-go-go-to-mizpeecom/
June 28th, 2007 at 10:24 am
There wasn’t anyone in line at the San Francisco Apple store when I walked by their late last night.
Here’s a bit about Greg Packer (who has never owned a mac or iPod) and is first in line in New York City:
from a LA Times article linked here
poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=125681
which mentions his wikipedia entry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Packer
June 28th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Get Justin.tv to bring you a camera some we can watch in the comfort of our A/C houses. (@.@)
June 28th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Great way to get yourself entertained, Robert :-)
So what line will be larger? The one for the iPhone or the one to pitch Mr.Scoble? :-))))
June 28th, 2007 at 11:03 am
You should setup a ustream feed.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:22 am
What a shameless plug for free stuff! Why didn’t I think of that? :)
June 28th, 2007 at 11:31 am
OK my first reaction is why aren’t you paying someone to do this for you? My second is why isn’t someone paying YOU for the publicity they’ll get that you actually spent 31 hours waiting for their product?
June 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
But, will Scoble last the night? I think we should set up a pool. At least the wait will be practice for another upcoming all-nighter.
June 28th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Can you save a spot if you beat me there?
http://www.yelp.com/biz/treFZjH65indgPv7Jrt0Jw
June 28th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
[...] about timing … just as the iPhone hysteria whips into a physical location frenzy near you, a probably more significant development will unfold on [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
[...] pm Filed under: Uncategorized … in front of the Palo Alto Apple store. He (not-so-humbly) calls it the PR person’s dream, and he does have a point. If you wanted a slice of Robert Scoble’s time and attention, or to [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Here’s the thing, it is a great opportunity to come and pitch to you if you live in San Francisco. Not me - in fact I don’t even live in the US. No I hail from Perth, Western Australia - the most isolated city in the world.
So how do I network? I use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Jaku. When you are running a start-up from the outside lane - these are vital to making connections.
But it’s also what thousands of others use and standing out on Scoble’s friends list is hard.
Most of the awesome contacts I made on Twitter were from getting on there early and forming friendships before the masses arrive. So now I count people who work in my area - social media - on the other side of the world as contacts - Chris Brogan, Jeff Pulver, Chris Abraham, Mike Sizemore, CC Chapman (and others).
So when I stumbled across Scoble’s competition to insult him in order to score a Pownce invite it was an opportunity to get in early. Form new contacts, before friends piled up and everybody becomes anybody.
When I looked at the insults they were pretty drab - I wrote down my insult and hey, it hit the nail. From following Scoble’s Twitter I knew it got to him when people unfriended him. So I scored the first invite he had to give away.
Then my email didn’t validate, so I scrambled to refile something and presto it did :)
I hate begging for invites and this one felt like a prize - I have never won anything before.
But the invite has not arrived, and I am noticing on Twitter that it is happening to others. Tara Hunt just complained hers hasn’t shown up.
I have not been able to contact Scoble to find out about whether the invite was actually sent or not.
So this is also a lame attempt at that, but thought the point about the importance of these networks outside of Silicon Valley was worth it too, given that Scoble is giving anyone who has a bit of intuition a chance try make contact with him there.
Good luck with the iPhone sit out ;)
June 28th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Great PR stunt, but you already have visibility in blogosphere, why do you need this?
Sounds like fun to visit apple store on univ ave tonight :)
June 28th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Wow, looks like all the Apple-haters/MS-fans aren’t happy you’re waiting in line for an iphone.
Because Robert Scoble isn’t a normal person like the rest of us? Because theres no reason he could possibly ever want an iPhone? Because he should just send an email to Apple and have them overnight-mail him a free iPhone for the free publicity?
Grow up folks. If the man wants to wait in line for an iPhone, he can.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Funny stuff. And a special bonus to the PR person who has CNN along for the ride. :)
June 29th, 2007 at 5:11 am
It would a PR dream, but I´m like Bronwen, far away from SF, so is difficult. I tried contacting Robert asking for some advice on PR, but no answer yet. I´ll have to take Bronwen aproach in the meantime.
Cheers!
July 5th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
So how many PR people actually came out to attack?
We are an agressive bunch you know.
July 5th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Kathy: not as many as I’d expected. Maybe three or four.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I love iphone too. camping in front of the Apple store is a good idea…
November 1st, 2007 at 3:11 pm
[...] has said that he was going to do it: well here he is with Patrick camping in front of the Apple store in Palo Alto since this morning 9:30am. For the short period of [...]