"A giveaway like none other. A project that’s never been seen before. See what happens when Olympus puts the new, revolutionary PEN® E-PM1 in the hands of everyday people. The PEN Ready Project is changing the way we capture the world, and this site is your chance to witness that change."Unfortunately, camera manufacturers like spin. As Thom Hogan points out, this type of giveaway project HAS BEEN seen before. A few years prior, Nikon gave away 200 Nikon D40 to citizens of Georgetown, S. Carolina, and I am told that Oprah does this type of thing as well. So much for that hyperbole.
At any rate, success or failure? Both Hogan and Zhang of Petapixel agree that the response could have been more enthusiastic and the results better if the cameras had been given to people more excited about such a giveaway. As Hogan points out, "You want people hoping they'll be one of the chosen few and looking to see what's happening, not just learning about what the chosen few did."
If Olympus wants people to realize their supposedly great E-PM1 is supposedly great, they probably should attempt to get better results from their marketing attempt. Take for example the photo that ran lead in their video promoting the event (top right), it is not very good. If you want people to buy your camera, the best way would probably involve showing the public that regular, non-photo geek people can take great photos with aforementioned camera.
So basically, Olympus ran a giveaway that had no hype (a surprise event to most) and produced relatively poor photographs. How's that for a marketing strategy - non-price competition failure in an oligopoly, anyone?
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