Because your phone could be worth $10,000: what to make of the LG buy back

so the above came my way describing how LG are looking to buy back five of their chocolate phones.  the lucky owners are set to gain $10,000 if one of the phones are theirs.  one senses a PR machine behind all of this, but it does demonstrate a very interesting way of engaging with the owners of your phones...

all a bit Willy Wonkas Golden Ticket in reverse, but there are five LG customers out there set to gain a fair bit of cash and a new handset to boot just for owning one of the phones.  hope that it is able to go further and amplify the reason behind all of this so that potential customers are exposed to events...

because at the heart of this is a nice old Mystery Box.  why do they want to buy the phones back?  why just five?  why these ones?  and where there are mystery boxes there's media to earn.  and we like earned media, not just because its free, but because it comes from the conversation, from the buzz, the discussion and the debate.  and that's very valuable media.

all good, and if you own an LG phone... good luck!

Comments

[Account Deleted]

I recently sold my old LG Viewty on eBay for £75... I shoulda held out for more, clearly...

[Matt Sadler]

The phones used to belong to the FBI, but they were donated to charity by mistake. The US government is desperately trying to get them back (hence the reward). Wouldn't want Al Qaeda prank calling the President, after all...