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Goodbye Golden Ticket (8/18/98)
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Sadly, it's time to mourn the loss of a marketing plan that never got off the ground-- though, ironically, it made bigger press than most of Apple's marketing plans could hope to. Yes, friends, the Golden Ticket promotion never happened and presumably never will. We refer to the widely-lauded plan to include five golden tickets in five random iMac boxes, which would grant the recipients a new Mac each year for five years, and a special tour of the Apple factory, inspired of course by Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Unfortunately, MacCentral reports that the plan was nixed.
Apple's Director of Corporate Marketing, Katie Cotton (remember when she was simply an "Apple spokesperson?" Oh, we're so proud of our little Katie!), refers to the Golden Ticket promotion as "something that [they] were kicking around and [they] have decided to focus on other things." To be sure, there are logistical problems with the plan as originally stated; for one, many states require that manufacturer's contests not require the purchase of a product in order to participate. How would Apple arrange that? Allow people to send in a self-addressed stamped envelope and if it returns with a golden ticket, you win? Yeah, right. Any such mechanism could conceivably work, but it detracts from the whole charm of the original promotion-- which makes for great reading (and a cool movie), but it's not particularly conducive to real-life implementation.
Of course, it's possible that Apple never seriously intended to run the promotion at all, and Steve only described it as something that Apple was "thinking about" in order to grab some free publicity. After all, the Golden Ticket plan was a rather flamboyant one, and sure to snag the attention of the press. Still, we're sorry that the promotion didn't happen; it would have made for some interesting footnotes in Apple's continuing history.
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SceneLink (948)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 8/18/98 episode: August 18, 1998: Alas, the iMac Golden Ticket promotion has shuffled off this mortal coil. Meanwhile, Apple's pushing its new consumer machine with a healthy mix of four Goldblum-voiced TV commercials, while desperately trying to crank out enough machines to meet demand...
Other scenes from that episode: 949: Hello Goldblum Voiceover (8/18/98) As for iMac promotional campaigns that Apple's actually running, well, we'd have to say that the television commercials are probably the most important. Sure, the twelve-page brochure destined for the pages of Newsweek and the like are nice and attention-getting, and it's great that we'll soon see the iMac's sleek curves on billboards sprinkled throughout our fair city, but TV is the omnipresent and omnipotent controller of all... 950: Cranking 'Em Out (8/18/98) Of course, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to advertise something that you can't sell. Concerns about iMac availability continue to cast a pall over the celebrations, as most retailers put up the "Sold Out" signs before the iMac's debut weekend was through...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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