Sony’s W Series Walkman is a waterproof, ear-mounted MP3 player at the centre of one of the smartest marketing ploys we’ve ever seen: it comes inside a bottle of water. If ever there was a demonstration of a company’s faith in its product then this is it.
The reason this scheme is so effective is twofold:
- Since the days of the earliest digital watches all tech users have been nothing if not suspicious of the word ‘waterproof’. Looking closely enough at the packaging will usually turn up a disclaimer along the lines of “up to 20 minutes in up to 1m of water”.
- From the second you see this you know, without a doubt, that this device is water proof. It’s been sitting in a bottle of water while transported who knows how long and Sony is still confident that not only it, but every other W Series Walkman on the shelf will be unaffected.
That’s product confidence right there; short, to the point and utterly unambiguous.
Waterproof Walkman FTW?
In short, swimming. As the StopPress press release shows, you can listen to music while doing pretty much any exercise but swimming. Now that's not an issue.
The final touch of this campaign that we really love is that the Walkmans are being sold in gym vending machines. The main target demographic is not only being exposed to a brilliant marketing scheme, but from seeing to buying is as easy as an online purchase, only you get immediate delivery. Brilliant.
We love the new focus on waterproof products coming out of Sony. There’s no reason that in making a fully sealed device that says you have to compromise on quality or hardware. The Xperia Z1 smartphone is a testament to this, and now so is the W Series Walkman.
Alex Angove-Plumb
Digital Content Editor
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