New Yorkers Are All Over Spectacles, Lines Go On For Blocks

It seems Snap Inc.’s marketing strategy pertaining to their first ever hardware product called Spectacles is proving to be successful. This is particularly evident in Manhattan, New York where long lines are forming wherever the company places one of their Pop-Up vending machines. The AR glasses are proving to be so successful that the machines is running out of the product while a lot of people are still lining up.

Snap Inc., the parent company of popular social media app Snapchat, just dropped off a pop-up store for its glasses product in midtown Manhattan. As a result, numerous tech enthusiasts proceeded to line up to get their own Spectacles, Ad Age reports.

The publication spoke to several of the people lining up for their Spectacles, including one Eric Lee. Lee is a business owner who started a company called Hudly, which deals in heads-up displays for vehicles, and he had been standing in line for hours to buy Snap’s AR glasses.

“I'm really here to just kinda check it out, the hype around it," Lee told Ad Age. "It's both my own personal need to see new gadgets and any other business opportunities that come from it."

The prospective customers learned about the arrival of the machines via advertising through platforms like YouTube and Twitter. Since Snap is only going to be placing these vending machines at select locations for a short amount of time, it generated the need to rush to the spots among tech consumers in order to get their own pair.

In terms of sheer level of interest generated, Recode reports that the line actually goes on for blocks, with over 400 people waiting for their turn. This is a testament to the brilliance of Snap’s marketing scheme, wherein they restricted access to the Spectacles vending machines, thus creating the illusion of demand. This resulted in igniting interest, which then translated to actual demand.