Loud Pow! kudos go out to the folks at Jawbone, the Bluetooth headset company. Last week, to cut through the uber-thick clutter that is the CES show, they orchestrated a brilliant no-questions-asked trade-in of your old wireless phone earpiece for theirs. Take a look at some of the barrels full of what they collected:
Yeah, it probably cost a bit more than handing out logo pens, min-flashlights or t-shirts, but the ensuing frenzy, pictures and word-of-mouth evangelists no doubt blew out the "R" in their ROI. No better way to get someone to sample your product than to give 'em one.
I know this hit the tech-savvy, early-adopter market they were looking for because I was turned onto the story by Pierre Vanacker, our brilliant and obsessively-curious head of innovation and R&D at Airborne. He sums it up best with these closing lines from his email to me:
"I would have waited a long time in line to switch mine. Plus all the buzz about talking about my new Jawbone. I wish Motorola or Sony Ericsson would do something like that at CTIA: (hand in) your old shitty phone and get a new one from us."