Am I Famous Now…

Being invited to participate as a blogger to a pre-release program certainly makes fun. I enjoy it and although I do not have to blog about the LG Shine it surely makes fun to play around with the phone and to blog about it.
Early blog posts about the second LG phone of the Black Label Series were welcomed warmly and one could immediately feel that the Shine was going to create a buzz.

Since the CES in Vegas there has been an increase in amount of LG Shine mentions in the blogosphere and yesterday, with the Shiny Shiny Video about the mirrored screen phone the buzz hit a first peak.
Just like it happens with almost every geek gadget, the LG Shine got his own User Group at Flickr. Some testers don’t limit themselves to only one entry, but it is obvious that the WorldWildWest.blogosphere.2zero will discover the smallest detail to criticize. And I am not not-guilty at this either.
Together with the discovered little problems, also less interesting details hit the blogosphere, such as only 50MB internal memory and 2G functionality for the first version.

To be honest I don’t want to be in the position of Gaylene Ravenscroft or the Hill & Knowlton team right at this moment. No one knows what is going to happen now : will the LG Shine go viral or will the phone get forgotten because many small annoyances have been uncovered already? ²

Hills & Knowlton have already proven their competence with 2 very positive campaigns for cell phones : the Motorola RAZR and the LG Chocolate. Once more the market a coup de coeur phone. Whether you love it from the first moment, whether you think “nah”.

H&K surely has planned some more surprises and we can expect at least one great video.
Probably UK network providers such as Vodaphone and T-Mobile will also push the phone. The great design lends itself perfectly for a very successful marketing campaign.
The blogosphere will adore the LG Shine¹, but how long will it take before this happens?

Could it be that marketing agencies still have to discover how to deal with the blogosphere? That they aren’t flexible enough yet to abuse first positive blogosphere vibes?
The LG Shine has a great track record online so far. 1GB internal memory, scroll wheel and 3G functionality… but also a great design. Everything needed to go big.
And the 1GB and 3G functionality are nothing more than a rumor that went viral, a blogger who thought we would see the same phone Koreans use in Europe and the rest of the world. Only the 3G version will come later.

Right now is the moment to create the big BUZZ! launching that viral video at YouTube! Hype the community and go viral online before launch already. Before the commercials will appear on TV.
That would be a great move for a marketing agency and perfect blogosphere marketing.

But I guesss I am nothing more than an encrusted blogger. A dreamer.
And they are a respected marketing agency.

An agency who has probably invited only 20 bloggers to the pre-release test. An agency maintaining a strict schedule about what will happen when. Not as flexible as the blogger hopes. Or at least this blogger hopes.
Probably they are only building Page and Trust Rank for the LG Shine Blog right now (and I am making sure H&K won’t send me another test gizmo anymore… Wuuppsss).

I would still love to see a company use the blogosphere to release a product and rely on the blogosphere. Gizmodo, Engadget, CrunchGear, Cnet. They can make any phone, any gizmo a great success. But this is still a long way to go. Hopefully one day we’ll see a blog strategist in every decent marketing agency.
And I am glad I can participate at this campaign.

Tomorrow I go promote the LG Shine the old-school way… at the cocktail lounge. :D

¹ So do I. The more I get used to the phone, the more I like it.
² H&K surely is not yet targeting the blogosphere. But I think they will run a succesful blog once the phone has been released on February 7.
I also hope they will soon integrate Ultimate Tag Warrior in their blog.