Queue and not U

A line for the 3G iPhone

A couple weeks back I was discussing how to draw customers into a special store my company has opened for a major project with a coworker. We were bouncing ideas back and forth when I came up with the idea of creating fake lines to draw buzz to the store. My coworker laughed, but I was strangely jazzed by the idea so I got off the phone and went and told my boss. I prefaced it with "this may seem insane but I think it would work."

Against all odds she thought it was incredibly inventive and a likely to succeed idea, so we took the idea to the project manager as well. He loved the idea, and we quickly formulated the concept out for proposal.

Shortly thereafter, said project manager left the company and no one has discussed my million dollar idea since, but I still think it was a good idea and a rather hilarious one. I was just stoked because every once in a while I come up with something that makes me feel halfway intelligent and that was my mini stroke of genius lately.

The story doesn't end there though.

Apparently Orange/Apple had bugs in someone's office. Why's that? In Poland, the iPhone has simply not been selling. This is in the face of staggering worldwide sales (4.1 million to date) and tremendous levels of buzz. However, customers simply did not want to pay the hefty monthly charges. So Orange (think of them as Europe's AT&T) and Apple paid actors to wait in line, creating fake queues to generate buzz.

So essentially my month old idea was adopted by two of the biggest companies in the world. Not to toot my own horn, but apparently this guy has got this marketing gig down. Orange, I'd like my consultant fees in Euros please, and Apple, I'd like a 3G iPhone with a lifetime unlimited unlimited (meaning anything and everything unlimited) plan. Also, one of whatever your best Macbook is.

Not too much to ask considering I won you guys the wireless battle in Poland. Everyone knows Poland is the key to supremacy in Europe.