Gawker's Apple tablet stunt is a winner

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 | By Vikki Chowney

For months, rumours of Apple’s tablet computer have been circulating the web, particularly on technology blogs like Mashable and Ars Technica. Bagging exclusive news, photos or reporting rumours is the bread and butter of these sites, and at the moment this particular gadget is the most coveted prize of all.

Late last week, Gawker offered a prize of $100,000 to anyone who could give the site access to an Apple tablet for one hour, with smaller payments for pictures ($10,000), video ($20,000) and an additional fee if Steve Jobs was included in the shot ($50,000). This isn’t exactly pocket money but is nothing in comparison to the traffic, kudos and inevitable surge in ad spend that would have resulted if it had produced a story.

However, this was never the real intention of the post. Instead, Nick Denton and his team were trying to stir up trouble with Apple’s lawyers. If the tablet does exist, the legal team behind one of the most notoriously secretive brands in the world would have served papers under the guise of commercial confidence. If not, there’d be no need to react.  

As it turns out, according to a post on Gawker, the company responded just as expected. The correspondence from law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe contained the line: “Apple has maintained the types of information and things you are soliciting…in strict confidence.” And that’s as close as you could possibly get to confirmation that the tablet is being developed.

This is undoubtedly a smart move from Gawker, but did Apple’s team know exactly what they were doing as well? Probably. They must have known that the blog would post the intricacies of the discussions, as it has done in the past. I can’t believe they were totally in the dark and I’d assume that, as a blog was involved, the communications team would have been consulted.

It’s a win-win situation: Gawker gets to break the news and Apple increases interest in its new product. However, brands take heed: unless you’re the size of Apple, denying something is only of benefit for so long. Apple is hardly begrudging the extra publicity but, for most brands, a lack of transparency just irritates and excludes people instead of encouraging them.

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