Apple iOS 4.2 Arrives

Brings with it AirPlay, AirPrint and the multi-tasking functionality your iPad always wanted.

Social Media Summer School Day 6 - Add Real World Value //Gabriel Smy
Red Gate’s free iPad

If you’re a developer in Cambridge you’ve probably heard about Red Gate’s crazy offer: a free iPad if you interview for one of their Engineer roles, whether you get the job or not. Of course it’s not crazy at all compared to recruitment agency fees.

It’s a clever campaign because it gives the impression of a largesse that can afford to be abused (let’s apply just for the tablet!). In reality, Red Gate are in complete control of how many Apple vouchers get given away, carefully screening applicants pre-interview. The iPad is just a ruse to get the best candidates into the building, where they witness the company first hand, and perhaps end up with the dilemma of an attractive job offer in their mitts …

Sandwiches spread

What impresses me more than the offer itself is how they have spread the word around. One Monday they bought Cambridge lunch by issuing an online voucher redeemable at eateries in the heart of business areas around the city. This carried the same feel of careless generosity as the iPad offer, with unlimited vouchers. And it was smart – there is only so much people can eat in one day, and the costs small compared to traditional advertising.

More importantly, the buzz that it created was palpable.

Whether people were grateful, suspicious, keen to game the system or just hungry, Red Gate’s target market (good developers already in jobs in Cambridge) ended up talking about the offer and the company. The idea spread virally. I got two free lunches and an ice-cream just from watching Twitter.

The news spread to the very centre of the community who needed to hear it.

And the news was not just information. It was an experience: in a free lunch, people were sampling something of the company’s culture of benefits, freedom and fun, right where they worked.

Nice job.

I love the way Red Gate do things. Last month I trained a load of Red Gate staff in how to write great blog posts, and more recently met their adroit Content Strategist Roger Hart (hurrah – there are now two of us in Cambridge). What strikes me about the company is that their values are carried by all of their members, even the new folk. That clever marketing was not just a strategic ruse: it was an extension of who they are and how they do things.

Gabriel Smy is a writer working on the web. His passion is making things clear. He is a Content Strategist for a small but perfectly formed web company in Cambridge, UK. As well as SmyWord, he runs the poetry blog Verbatim and writes about his first novel at Tongues of Men. Of course, you can follow him on twitter here.

I’ll be watching the England game on my iPad.

Or at least augmenting my reality of it thanks to the beautifully simple LivePitch application which represents overall game possession.

Has Apple missed it’s killer selling opportunity?!

(Click through is an iTunes link!)