In the video game industry, companies with huge promotional budgets routinely design special boxes and goodies to show off their new products to the media. But very few iPod, iPhone, or iPad developers have ever jazzed up new releases to show them off, and fewer still have come up with ways of doing so that don’t seem like attempts at bribery. Speck Products this week found the right side of the promotional line, coming up with a novel way to publicize its line of AT&T-exclusive CandyShell and Fitted Cases for iPhone 4: it assembled a faux fruit crate—amusingly orange-themed, rather than apple—with each of the exclusive cases wrapped in the sort of styrofoam packing wrappers used by high-end fruit retailers such as Harry and David.
Two colorful new versions of Fitted were in the box, both more “fun” and “summery” than the standard collection of mature fabric-backed cases; there were also three exclusive CandyShell variations, and the classic black and gray CandyShell that’s available elsewhere. Speck experiments with lots of colors and patterns for all of its cases, picking only a handful for widespread release and leaving many sitting in its labs—a deal like this clearly gives AT&T some interesting options, especially the black and pink CandyShell, that might appeal to fashion-conscious female customers.
Also interesting: going along with the orange theme, Speck included a “flip and tumble” portable shopping bag that can be compacted into a soft orange-shaped ball for easy storage and unfurled as needed. “Because comparing Apples to oranges is impossible,” explains Speck, “we’ve given you both to enjoy.” Cute. And a smart way to promote an exclusive case partnership that would have been very easy to miss otherwise.