We hear every day about a news leak, a photo leak or a video leak. It comes across like someone "discovered" something, found an image, heard a report, saw something. The reality is that in most cases these "leaks" are part of a strategy to build up interest. It's a lead up to the big news day.
To give you background, I ran PR for the Upper Deck Company in 1991 and 1992. Granted social media wasn't around back then, but the so called "hobby press" was as aggressive about finding things out, especially about Upper Deck as we were the Apple of trading cards. And, nothing ever leaked about our cards (though our Trade Jordan outdoor campaign did get leaked by an outdoor ad company by accident.)
When I say, NOTHING. I mean NOTHING. We kept everything IN HOUSE. Nothing made it to the media if we didn't want it to. That's why when I see all these leaks I know better. As a public rule, Apple will terminate a company that allows things to get leaked, yet, do you see Apple changing suppliers? No. You see them internalizing more. Google on the other hand plays the game very well. While they control everything, like Apple, the amount of information that comes out surrounding their products is far too detailed and too well orchestrated.
So the next time you hear about a product leak, know that they're not really leaks. Just another rung in a well thought out PR strategy.
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