iPad 2 Out-of-the-Box Marketing: Huge Apple Banner Covers La Conciergerie in Paris

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The iPad 2 is clearly the best selling tablet out there even if it’s not the best device, strictly speaking from the hardware point of view. But we’re not going to talk specs and features today, or mention the tablet experience Apple brainwashed us into today. We’re not going to talk about pricing schemes and launch policies, but we will talk about one of Apple’s most powerful tool at its disposal, cunning marketing tactics.

Because even before the smoke and mirror show is over, which usually announces the next best Apple product that will change everything again, Apple is building hype around the upcoming new product. The iPad 2 was already famous before it was announced. And once the product becomes official, that marketing department starts thinking of plenty of out-of-the-box ways of promoting the product in order for Apple to cash big time on it. So I wasn’t really surprised to see Apple do its thing while in sightseeing in Paris the other day.

That’s how the iPad 2 ended up all over the La Conciergerie palace in Paris. Without going into too much geographical and historical background regarding this former palace and prison, I’ll tell you that the La Consiergerie is in the center or Paris, on the Ile de la Cite, or a place that’s swarming with Parisians and tourists. I’ll also tell you that the La Conciergerie is a tourist attraction as it happens to be the place that once housed Queen Marie Antoinette right before she was guillotined. And other famous prisoners were held there including the Robespierre, who, ironically, trialed and had executed himself several of them. But that’s enough to prove the point I’m trying to make; that landmark gets huge traffic at various times of day. Being on the banks of the Seine also helps and ensures that plenty of people see the huge banner.

Now the place is quite impressive, and when the city decided it needed to restore its façade, guess who was ready to make an impressive advertising offer for the banner that was going to cover the building? Apple of course! And while the company is probably paying dearly for having the iPad 2 and those Smart Covers plastered all over that huge historical building it is also selling plenty of iPad 2 units at the same time, both in Paris and in other markets.

It certainly would have been very cool to see the Motorola Xoom or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, or any non-Apple product, on the La Conciergerie the other day, but I didn’t. Which, again, shows us one more reason Apple is able to sell more products in a certain niche by thinking outside of the box and keeping those products in the mind and the hearts of the consumers.