OnePlus, the startup company that has made its name by offering smartphones with premium specifications and features at mid-range price tags, is also known for launching high-impact but low-cost marketing initiatives.
One example is how OnePlus drives up hype and demand for its devices by making the smartphones available exclusively through invites, which are only valid for 24 hours.
The China-based company's latest marketing ploy takes the concept of the "30 minutes or it's free" delivery scheme often used by pizza chains and applies it to smartphones. No, seriously.
Under the initiative, which will be tested by OnePlus in the city of Bangalore in India, users can order smartphones through the mobile app of Blowhorn, which is a Bangalore-based marketplace that OnePlus has tied up with for the promotion. Once the order for the device is placed and accepted in the Blowhorn app, the user would expect to have the smartphone delivered within 60 minutes, or else, the device will be free.
The promotion is being offered for the OnePlus One, which was the company's flagship device last year. While the company has already released its successor, the OnePlus 2, the OnePlus One is still a very capable device in today's ever-increasing smartphone standards.
The offer has already started for residents of Bangalore as of Oct. 8, with customers allowed to take advantage of it by first downloading the Blowhorn app through the Google Play Store.
This new out-of-the-box promotion by OnePlus could very well be the first instance of a smartphone manufacturer following the model used by the delivery businesses for pizza and other kinds of food.
"Can you ever imagine receiving a smartphone in about the same time as you order a pizza? At OnePlus, we think it's possible," said OnePlus India general manager Vikas Agarwal, adding that the company is always looking to challenge the status quo and improve the experience for its users.
A statement by OnePlus reveals that the program in Bangalore is only a pilot project, with the company expecting to expand the promotion to other cities. Whether or not the offer will find its way to the United States is anybody's guess.
As a reminder of what the OnePlus One is capable of, the smartphone packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with 3GB of RAM and internal storage of up to 16GB. The device also has a 13MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP front-facing camera.
