Why the State of the Union is only the second biggest story of the day

By Len Gutman on January 27th, 2010 In Hype!

Today is a momentous day. All of the news media is going to be there. The whole world will be tuning in. The news is so exciting we can barely stand it and we’ve been anticipating it for weeks. Today one man will be standing before us to tell us something very important. And that man is…Steve Jobs.

While some of you might think President Obama’s live State of the Union speech is today’s biggest news story, I am pretty confident more people care about the big Apple announcement. Is a tablet computer really more important than the state of our country?

Well, the iSlate may not be more important, but it certainly is getting more hype and stealing the spotlight from the president. Why is it that Apple has this kind of PR prowess?

It’s pretty simple really. Apple has a track record of major success. The Mac itself is hugely successful. Then of course there was the iPod. Followed a few years ago by the iPhone. It shouldn’t be any surprise at all that the world is on the edge of its collective seat waiting for the official unveiling of Apple’s first tablet computing device.

Past success is the coal in this PR engine. If it were HP announcing a new tablet computer the world would barely notice. This is an important distinction for PR professionals who try to over-sell their new products to the media and the world. You have to earn your audience.

Why the State of the Union is only the second biggest story of the day

Comments

Marketing $ociologist Says:
January 27th, 2010 at 8:47 am

Fantastic and timely post, Mr. Gutman. You raise interesting questions in the marketing realm.

Hard to believe, but the iPod was introduced 8 months after George Bush II’s first inaugural and days before the 9/11 attack. Wonder which history will remember 2001 for: Bush, iPod introduction or 9/11?

It was three years ago this month Apple introduced the iPhone. I used to say your next computer will be an iPhone, but that has changed since Google entered the market.

Let’s hope practitioners are ready to embrace this technology being introduced today. Many in the field lagged on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Matter of fact, last summer PR professionals on LinkedIn answer a question I did about Twitter being a fantastic marketing tool by calling it “a fad” and “too soon to use.”

Yet today those people sound like Al Gore. They invented social media according to their profiles.

Dan Wool Says:
January 27th, 2010 at 9:37 am

How dumb was the Newton now?

Brent Diggins Says:
January 27th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

Thought provoking topic.

It is amazing how little coverage the State of the Union is especially considering the nation is at one of its biggest crossroads ever.

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