How Amazon Is Trying to Outdo Apple: Create More Awe

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Image: Christina Ascani, Mashable

When he was still in high school, Jeff Bezos designed his own mini summer camp for fourth through sixth graders. Precociously enough, he called it the DREAM Institute, and charged $600 a pop. Bezos was a voracious reader, and the DREAM Institute was to be a boot camp for the mind: in one summer, the younger kids would be required to read The Once and Future King, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Lord of the Rings, Dune, Watership Down, Black Beauty, Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island, and David Copperfield.

He got six signups.

Fast-forward to 2014, when Bezos again sent out prescribed reading — this time, a single slim children's volume called Mr. Pine's Purple House, which Bezos said had been one of his favorite reads as a kid. He got rather more interest this time; the book was received and immediately written up by every news outlet attending Wednesday's mystery Amazon unveiling (including Mashable).

At this stage, everyone on the planet seems to know Amazon is launching a smartphone of some kind, probably one that creates a glasses-free 3D effect by using multiple cameras. Still, Mr. Pine's Purple House was scoured like a clue in a treasure hunt, just like the previous clue: a now-famous Amazon video where customers' heads tilt and eyes pop when they look at the device Amazon is launching.

We've already looked at what to expect from the Amazon smartphone, and we'll find out soon enough how right we were. But in the meantime, let's take a moment to acknowledge the expert marketing at work — marketing from which even Apple could learn a thing or two.

Through no fault of Apple's own, its launch events have become fairly rote. Given how transparent the manufacturing chain becomes when the whole world is interested, we're always going to find out the details of a particular device ahead of time. Will the iPhone 6 be larger than its predecessor? If it is, that won't be a big surprise. We've been looking at photos of a bigger "iPhone 6" for weeks. We're practically already over it. Similarly, there have already been leaked photos of the supposed Amazon device.

Bezos understands that we live in a world where hardware secrets are hard to keep. No one at Amazon has denied that a smartphone is in the offing. The edge of it is even on display in the invitation. Rather, Bezos amped up the sense of mystery and awe around the event itself.

Amazon rather cleverly made it appear as if it was inviting the world, rather than just the stodgy old tech press — while behind the scenes, Amazon controlled who was allowed to attend with an iron fist. The company played the favorites game with journalists, and played it expertly. Veteran members of the media who've written critically about Amazon in the past, or who have covered Amazon in the past but are unknown quantities to a newer, younger team at Amazon PR, found their "applications" rejected.

Like Apple, sadly, Amazon has figured out that not only can you get away with this sort of bad behavior, it actually makes you more intriguing. In the tech media, we're spoon-fed and spammed constantly; companies normally beg us to come to events. We're seduced by the opposite approach. We love clues and treasure hunts.

Accordingly, the company didn't give out details on the timing or location of the event until the last minute. T-Mobile was planning its own launch event in Los Angeles the same day. Bowing to Amazon's center of gravity, it moved the event to Seattle, and waited until Amazon had announced the timing on its event to schedule its own, almost certainly at tremendous expense. But what else could they do?

Ditch your plans for the day, Amazon told us. There would be shuttle buses and a warehouse. Why a warehouse? Who knows? Roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour! T-Mobile planned a webcast; Amazon said it would do no such thing.

Of course, all this wonder and awe can be a risky thing if the product isn't up to snuff. J.J. Abrams always likes to talk about the notion of a mystery box, which is always more exciting when you don't know what's in it. The showrunners for the series Abrams devised, Lost, found that out to their chagrin when the show reached the final episode.

But Bezos has created the best possible set of circumstances for a smooth unveiling. He is, as I've said in the past, about the most polished on-stage CEO the tech world has in the wake of Steve Jobs. The press is antsy and excited, and the audience will be packed with enthusiastic Amazon customers who are just happy to be there, and no wonder — the company paid their airfare and accommodation. Of course they're going to cheer wildly.

If he had to do the DREAM Institute idea over again, no doubt Jeff Bezos would learn from this experience. He'd send mysterious invitations to those fourth grade kids, offering to take a select few of them into worlds of wonder and imagination if they only fill out these applications. He'd reject some applications arbitrarily. He'd send out teasing postcards, a segment of a book cover here and there. He'd get on stage and hype up those books until the kids would be on their feet demanding to read David Copperfield.

A tour of Mr. Pine's Purple House would never seem so intriguing.