Here’s a really quick way to get tons of people talking about your brand on social media. Literally crash the competition’s party.
In a publicity stunt that seemed tailor made for Twitter, T-Mobile CEO John Legere showed up uninvited at an AT&T party at CES in Las Vegas, wearing a pink T-Mobile t-shirt no less. After he happily allowed himself to be photographed by Roger Cheng, the executive editor of CNET, AT&T’s security showed up and escorted him out of the event, the highlight of which was a live performance by rapper Macklemore.
Ran into @JohnLegere at the AT&T party. Yep, he crashed it. And still wearing the pink t-mo shirt. #CES2014 pic.twitter.com/gy9vGTJUEW
— Roger Cheng (@RogerWCheng) January 7, 2014
It should be mentioned that Legere, while uninvited, did get in to the party through legitimate means, having secured his passes through Macklemore’s publicist. AT&T also missed an opportunity for some great PR by angrily kicking Legere out, when it could have done the classy thing and given him the VIP treatment instead.
However, Legere had been baiting AT&T publicly on Twitter for quite some time, so its no surprise that he was persona non-grata at its event. But it looks like the move worked in his favor, making T-Mobile look like the underdog fighting for the people and AT&T the giant telecom behemoth who’s gouging money from its customers. Legere received plenty of support for his actions, not to mention wide coverage in the tech press.
Even though he might be playing it down, it really is a genius move on the part of Legere. He timed it to perfection, a day ahead of T-Mobile’s press conference at CES where it is expected to announce its new “Uncarrier 4.0” campaign. Stay tuned, something tells me there’s plenty more ways Legere is planning to antagonize the competition.
