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Sony sells its waterproof mp3 player inside a bottle of water
- wubbfindel 13y agoIs this what they call "immersive marketing"?
- dredmorbius 13y agoWhoever came up with this is still wet behind the ears.
- wubbfindel 13y agoThe marketing campaign, or my pun? [edit @snowman41: Yes I know "wet behind the ears" is another pun. I was asking whether "whoever came up with this" refers to the campaign or my comment.]
- snowman41 13y agoThe pun, "WET behind the ears" is another pun.
- dredmorbius 13y agoIt's all wet.
- wubbfindel 13y agoFair enough. I just couldn't help myself. Gotta like a good pun!
- rdudek 13y agoInteresting marketing tactic. Is that water drinkable?
- auggierose 13y agoIf it weren't they would be risking severe lawsuits for selling it from vending machines alongside Coke etc.
- madaxe_again 13y agoActually, it's a really interesting question. The walkman needs to be safe for use in contact with the skin. The water needs to be drinkable. Packaging directives look at things like phthalates in the bottle... but don't consider contents within the bottle which aren't part of the beverage or beverage serving mechanism. So... they can, legally, pretty much do whatever the hell they want, as the Mp3 player does not need to be consumable, the water and bottle will be quantified as safe by themselves, and the thing as a whole (bottle + water) is just treated as packaging, so doesn't need to be consumable. All in all it's the kind of thing that isn't quite covered by product safety standards, as it's so irregular.
- derekp7 13y agoWouldn't this be the same regulations that cover the "secret toy surprise" inside CrackerJacks? Or cereal boxes?
- Pwntastic 13y agoThere's not really much of a choking hazard here though, is there?
- Tuna-Fish 13y agoMost of the world doesn't have those regulations. Or, in other words, cue the surprise of all the Europeans when they realize that Kinder eggs are illegal in the US.
- vvvVVVvvv 13y agoYour loss USA, your loss.
- josh-wrale 13y ago(satire)... "Warning: plastic in Walkman contains lead in California" ... I wouldn't drink the water.
- visakanv 13y ago"Though the device itself was launched a while ago, Sony turned to Auckland-based ad agency DraftFCB to help market the product in New Zealand. And so they came up with the Bottled Walkman, which is sold from vending machines in public places such as gyms. Check out the demo video for yourself." That's what's most interesting to me. Have we heard from anybody who's actually bought the player from a vending machine? This seems to me to be one of those cases where you don't actually need to do it to get the marketing value from it- all you need is to make a video of the idea. It's a more sophisticated form of "This Ad Was Banned!!" I could be totally wrong, of course. EDIT: To clarify, I'm saying I don't think Sony's actually selling their walkmans in bottles of water, they just made a video of the idea of it. Can anbody disconfirm this?
- shawabawa3 13y ago> To clarify, I'm saying I don't think Sony's actually selling their walkmans in bottles of water, they just made a video of the idea of it. Can anbody disconfirm this? I imagine they probably have at least 1 real vending machine, but you're probably right in that the publicity of the story is worth 1000x the sales from the vending machine
- csours 13y agoIt certainly was in my case, because now I am going to investigate buying one! Hail Corporate!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- rmason 13y agoSo you expect me to believe that a vending machine where I can buy a Coke for six quarters that I can also buy an MP3 player for 750 quarters? I am not buying it.
- etler 13y agoSome vending machines take credit cards now. Also, what year are you in? These cost $78 on amazon (312 quarters), not $187.50! :)
- dublinben 13y agoI guess it worked. Waterproof MP3 players have been around for a decade, but the average consumer probably doesn't know that.
- Luc 13y agoOh for fuck's sake, it's not even a product, it's an ad for an ad agency. What a waste of time. But apparently HN commenters are not immune to being fooled...
- Tuna-Fish 13y agoYou do realize that a lot of the HN crowd is actually much more interested in purchasing ads from ad agencies than they are in purchasing products, right? An ad for an ad agency that is fresh and innovative is very much relevant.
- Luc 13y agoIn that case we may as well post every article on http://springwise.com/ http://springwise.com/ to HN. I thought people here were a bit more hard-nosed.
- glenstein 13y agoOr we might just use our collective discretion, selecting interesting examples every now and again as we please?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- snake_plissken 13y agoI'll hand it to Sony, they can come up with some sweet marketing campaigns. On a side note, do a lot of people really listen to music while swimming? In college I used to do 30 minutes of laps in the pool a couple times a week. I liked doing it precisely because you couldn't listen to music and you'd have to focus on keeping good form. It was just you and the water.
- lucb1e 13y ago> On a side note, do a lot of people really listen to music while swimming? Well, as far as I know this wasn't really possible without getting some expensive equipment (both player and earbuds). Not that I really searched for it, but just nobody does it (and so nobody even thinks of doing this or searches for it). Seeing how many people listen to music in the gym or while jogging, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an uptick in listening to music while swimming now. Although, I haven't actually clicked the link yet, they may need to ship earbuds/headphones with it, and I don't know how well they work when they need to be watertight.
- pilom 13y agoI got a waterproof ipod shuffle here: http://www.underwateraudio.com/waterproof-ipod-shuffle/ http://www.underwateraudio.com/waterproof-ipod-shuffle/ I would clip it to my goggle strap and swim about an hour a day 3 days a week back when I lived by a pool. The ipod shuffle really was an amazing form factor for the player as it had the clip built in which could clip to the straps. The headphones were always a different story. You need specially made earbuds which a) use a waterproof membrane instead of a mesh for the speaker and b)fit tight enough in your ear so water wouldn't get in and fill the air chamber in front of the speaker. It took me 3 tries to find headphones that would stay in and be airtight.
- lucb1e 13y agoNever knew/seen people actually did this! Interesting
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
- mhb 13y agoWhy doesn't this have the same legal issues as Kinder Eggs? Maybe the watch in bottled water also can't be sold in the US? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise
- maaaats 13y agoI can see several reasons: 1. This isn't US, so those rules don't apply ("a confectionery product with a non-nutritive object, partially or totally imbedded within it, cannot be sold within the United States") 2. This may be more a viral thing than an actual packaging. 3. The water may not really be meant to be drunk, it's just a gimmick.
- ars 13y agoYou can see the product inside so no one will drink it by mistake.
- dec0dedab0de 13y agoThats interesting, I never heard of that. It sounds like it would technically apply to fortune cookies too.
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoPaper is edible; compared to small plastic toys it's practically delectable. As long as the ink is safe for consumption then there seems little to object about.
- mbq 13y agoI guess EU would require Sony to certify the player for food contact and that would be expensive enough to be not worth the trouble. Or require to wipe any suggestions that the water is drinkable.
- basseq 13y agoImpactful packaging, but seems gimmicky. Also, think about it from a supply chain perspective: water is heavy. Conservatively, assume the mp3 player in normal packaging is about a pound. 16oz of water is going to double that. And distribution channels for consumables is completely different from electronics. I can't imagine this is going to be widespread.
- visakanv 13y agoI can't imagine it needs to be; they just need people to watch the video and share the headlines on major news sites, Reddit, HN, etc. Suddenly the idea of Sony's waterproof walkman is in everybody's minds, almost free of charge. Most people will probably buy it online or from their favourite retail store.
- andygates 13y agoAfter a bunch of "sports players" which are not as waterproof as I'd like, the marketing is working on me. Disappointment is the norm in this niche.
- rahimnathwani 13y agoMaybe they could ship it through the water pipes direct to your house, thus saving packaging and transportation costs, and the pesky plastic for the bottle.
- welly 13y agoI wouldn't worry. There's only about 700 people who live in New Zealand.
- auctiontheory 13y agoWhat if the sheep want their own?
- welly 13y agoThen we're in trouble.
- judk 13y agoReminds of the famous story about a Sony exec throwing a device in a fish tank and seeing bubbles.
- shawabawa3 13y agoWasn't that steve jobs? At least the version I heard was steve jobs with an iPod prototype (the bubbles proved there was empty space so the ipod could be smaller)
- gruseom 13y agoIt's an urban legend.
- TeMPOraL 13y agoI heard it attributed to Steve Jobs. Another urban legend forming?
- tommyd 13y agoReally cool idea, although a friend pointed out that a very similar idea has already been done for watches: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2013/6/13/festina-watches-divers-watch-in-water-packaging.html http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2013/6/13/festina-watches-div...
- sspiff 13y agoI looked at getting one of these for the holidays, but it seems they're not held firmly into your ears during swimming sessions, according to reviews. Nice marketing though.
- iamben 13y agoWhat an excellent concept. Reminded me of the '80s(?) when the waterproof Timex (or was it Casio?) was displayed in fishtanks - you immediately knew what the product was capable of, as well as it becoming one of those "guess what I saw earlier" things.
- dredmorbius 13y agoThere were (are?) watches sold in water-filled containers as well.
- ck2 13y agoHow do they keep bacteria from growing on it inside the water?
- ars 13y agoAdd some chlorine to the water.
- maxerickson 13y agoMaybe. I'm not sure they would need to, the player isn't going to have much in the way of nutrients on it.
- factorizer 13y agoJust a guess, but probably silver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_uses_of_silver#Water_purification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_uses_of_silver#Water_pu...
- jessaustin 13y agoIs that important?
- VLM 13y agoIf they pasteurize or pressure cook the water with the player in it, I would be very impressed. That would work pretty well. Could also acidify the water aka lemonade. Doesn't take much citric acid to make water bath canning viable. How do I know so much about canning food? I can stuff you simply cannot buy in retail stores, like brandied fruits and the like. Very tasty!
- swatkat 13y agoLooks like it's become a recurring theme at Sony. They had kept Xperia Z demo phones and tablets under running tap water, at their outlets in Bangalore.
- buster 13y agoIn Berlin last year, you could win a Sony phone by diving into a tank of water and fetch one from the ground. If it was a real one, you could keep it :)
- pratkar 13y agoGimmicky - yes. But the larger question is whether the water is actually potable, it being in vending machines after all!
- SixSigma 13y agoI'm a Sony hardware fan and I would have bought this device in a heartbeat if it didn't have such awful battery life. It would be perfect on my bike rides but I ride all day, not less than an hour. Happily I have a Sony mp3 player with 30 hours from a single charge.
- SamReidHughes2 13y agoIt has 7 to 8 hours of battery life, not 1 hour. edit: According to the tech specs it will get a 1 hour charge after the first 3 minutes of charging. I have the previous water-resistant model and this seems about right.
- SixSigma 13y agoI think I might have been fooled by the "3 minute charge, 1 hour of playback" claim. it does indeed also claim 7 hours. That has made me happy, one more bit of Sony kit on the way :)
- NAFV_P 13y agoA few weeks ago my mate grabbed his Sony smartphone (I cannot recall the actual model since I'm clueless about smartphones), started recording a video, then threw it in the dog's water bowl. Great ten second video, including distorted sound. Water ? lame. What about vodka? At times like this I will side with General Ripper from Dr Strangelove. He never drank water, because the commies were poisoning it to pacify the West.
- girvo 13y agoI used to drop my Motorola Defy into friends alcoholic drinks while out as a party trick and ice breaker (literally?). Worked fine :)
- NAFV_P 13y agoWhereas about a dozen years ago I accidentally dropped my girlfriend's phone in a glass of coke... it was fucked. It's great technology has advanced so much we can do underwater selfies.
- ohearb 13y agoDefinitely going to grab a lot of attention, but a bad idea other than that. Too costly and impractical.
- qwoeiu 13y agoFuck sony, from that blog I just found out about fan-made Robocop remake: http://ourrobocopremake.com/ http://ourrobocopremake.com/ How could I miss that?
- bhartzer 13y agoIf you bought this at a gym, would you drink the water that it came in?
- presidentender 13y agoSure. Why not?
- pasbesoin 13y agoThe water is so the rootkits grow better. (In other words, I don't buy Sony products any more, since they insisted upon rootkitting their customers' computers some years ago.)
- chenster 13y agoI want one!
- kimonos 13y agoPerfect idea for me!
- Matsta 13y agoGah can't believe I missed this! They were in a vending machine at my gym last month! Apparently the promo was only for 30 days, but in that time they did sell a few (according to the guy that works there). I saw some guys wearing them (since the gym is above the swimming pool so you can look down) and it works without a smartphone. I'm pretty sure the water is drinkable as well. Pretty bizarre that people had to put cash in to buy it though. I don't remember there being a Eftpos terminal at all. Strange this just popped up today though, since I haven't seen any of these vending machines around in the last few weeks.
- happywolf 13y agoNah, I don't think drinking the water is a good idea...
- visakanv 13y agoCool, I think you're the first person I've heard from who's actually seen one! Are you in NZ?
- Matsta 13y agoCorrect from Auckland. The advertising company DraftFCB is actually on the other end of the street where I work as well. I told the staff at the gym last night about how this had blown up in the news and they were very happy that they were 'beta testers' for this marketing experiment.
- thomc 13y agoWhat about the charger, warranty card, manual, etc? There is space at the top of the bottle masked by a silver band which might contain something, but surprised if you could get the charger in there.
- sgdesign 13y agoUnless that's a different mp3 player from the one I'm thinking about, it got pretty bad reviews. It might be waterproof, but most reviewers said that once water gets in your ear you can't really hear anything.