Jeff Bezos and his company Amazon, have been all over the news since their 60 minutes interview where he discussed the possibility of delivering packages to your house through the use of automated drones. And while everyone was causing this crazy technology to go viral on social media, marketing insiders had a different theory. The day the interview was broadcast was the day before Cyber Monday, the number one sales day of the year for online shopping and a space that Amazon dominates. If this was a coincidence, boy is Amazon lucky!

There is another possible motive for this marketing maneuver. Normally Amazon is very tight lipped on future plans in regards to technology and in fact their PR is pretty tight lipped about everything. Recently there was a book published by Business week reporter Brad Stone. Let’s just say it will not be likely that Mr. Bezos and Mr. Stone will be sharing a friendly dinner anytime soon. After the book came out and became a best seller, Amazon PR seems to be everywhere in regards to the book. So right after they sprung into action and failed at squashing the book coverage, they are now releasing plans for future improvements in their fulfillment process. Fulfillment is Amazons strength. Why would they give competitors a 5 year heads up and potentially give up a huge competitive advantage?

In marketing it is called “closing one door and opening another.” You create another newsworthy issue to deflect attention away from the previous coverage and in this case, possibly throw off your competition by causing them to throw money at R&D for their own drones and get a nice 14 minute free plug the night before “Cyber Monday”.