A gadget is launched, it garners loads of publicity, they go out to the select two or three top publishers and it all fizzes out. Its the same story time and again and apart from the select publishers the rest just read the stories from the internet and publish it in their words describing the experience of the gadget. This is not a very ethical practice and at least in theory everyone writing about any gadget should have had sufficient time with the device to justify their opinion. This would make sure that the readers who read the opinion, reads the authentic stuff than someone else’s opinion in a new dress.
Providing a solution to the blogging world is Croma with their unique Croma Blogger’s Club. The main aim of the club is to allow young and budding bloggers of the verse to check out and compile the reviews of their devices while testing out the device in real time at the Croma retail for however long they wish to. The bloggers simply have to get in touch with the Manager of their Local Store, fix up a time and get invaluable hands on time as well as the space to click pictures and shoot videos of the device.
However, the evening was not just about the announcement of the blogger’s club but also saw Kobo, a giant in the E-Book biz take it’s first steps in the Indian Market. Kobo announced a couple of E-Book Readers, two out of which were the focus of attention. The Kobo Arc HD is very similar to the regular Kindle and is an E-Ink reader while the Aura HD is an Android powered Tablet running JellyBean 4.2. Kobo maintained that their focus of attention was not hardware and devices but more on services that Kobo as a platform provides budding writers and opportunity to explore the collection of E-Books.
The evening also saw an interesting Twitter activity with #KoboCromaMeet which trended for about 7 hours making sure the wide verse of Twitter knew about the activity. there were also a couple of activities at the venue where bloggers stood a chance to win the Kobo E-Reader by taking part. The first activity saw bloggers share pictures from the event on their Twitter or Instagram profiles while the second activity involved writing about the most memorable moment on the Wall of Fame!
Overall, it was the informal nature of the event and the openness of the teams from both Kobo and Croma that made the event stand out from rest of the boring and one dimensional launches. How far the Blogger’s Club will go is anybody’s guess, but it is a thoughtful approach and an interesting idea and we would love to see it soar along.