A common theme among Tablet PC enthusiasts, evangelists, and Tableteers is the poor marketing and promotion of the device we love. Loren Heiny of the Incremental Blogger has posed an interesting challenge:
What would you do with $10 million to promote the Tablet PC?
He's got some great thoughts. Check it out.
Hopefully, I'll have some time to add some of my own later today.
Update after the jump.
Colin Walker has chimed in with his thoughts on how to spend Loren's cool $10 million. He and Loren are both spot on with there ideas.
The key is getting Tablet PCs in venues where people can touch the machine and feel the magic. I agonized for a couple of months until I could find a few places back in 2003 where I could do just that. I'm not sure $10 million will get you the shelf space or the staff training that Colin is alluding to but it would be a start.
Students? You bet. It's a key market. How many campus bookstores are there? Get there.
$10 million can get eaten up pretty quick in this kind of thing. But I think there are other ways to get exposure that will help drive folks to places where they can go hands on.
- Pay for some product placement on TV and in film.
- Get on one of the shopping channels.
- Use PR Resources to get print coverage outside of geekdom. Work on getting coverage in publications for markets where the Tablet PC factor can really shine.
- And of course, (this is different than the student market) GET TABLET PCS IN THE HANDS OF KIDS. Sponsor art contests. Give the winners Tablets.
UPDATE: Check out Craig Pringle's ideas. He's only spending a $1.00
