Last month, OnePlus launched it’s flagship device, the OnePlus 5 in India which has been one of the most anticipated smartphone of the year. Since inception, OnePlus Fan Community has always been an integral part of company’s ecosystem.
Even during the launch of OnePlus 5 on 22nd June, gates were open for their fans. Fans have supported OnePlus for their best in class hardware at a reasonable price and in return OnePlus has always maintained a strong bond with their fans.
One of the finest example of their connect with the fans was this particular meetup, the “Ice Cream with Carl“ meetup took place at DLF Mall of India, Noida on July 11.
As the Facebook post suggests Carl Pei, himself had invited his fans for the meetup 3 days before the event. As a result, the event saw a huge response. A similar fan meetup had already taken place in Bangalore earlier at the OnePlus Bangalore experience store where Carl met around 200 fans.
The meetup started at around 6 PM and continued till 9. The fans were offered free ice cream by Carl. The main objective of the event was to be close to the strong OnePlus community which is rapidly growing in India. There were fans who had come from different parts of India be it Gujarat or Chandigarh. This shows how strong the connect is within the OnePlus community.
During the event Carl Pei, Co Founder and Head of Global Business for OnePlus, interacted with every single fan and offered them ice-cream. He had a casual interaction and listened to the fans about their views on everything and anything around the OnePlus or the new launch.
On being asked about the idea of such meetup Carl said, “It’s a casual meetup, which started a month back from Bangalore where all the fans were invited to the experience store to have an ice-cream. On the same ground, this casual meetup has been organised just to interact, take feedback about the product and see what they feel about OnePlus”.
On further being questioned about the response of OnePlus 5 he added,”There are both positive and negative comments online but the people who buy the product are the users and customers who are overwhelming and really positive about the product”.
It’s been for the first time when a Co-Founder of big smartphone company came out openly to meet his fans, have an ice-cream and interact with them without any security restrictions. Just after the launch of one of the most awaited smartphone, such events bring fans, customers, followers etc. much closer to a company and establishes a relationship and trust amongst both.
Conclusion
There have been some issues with the OnePlus 5 and the device has received mixed feedback and review from the fans and consumers. Events and activities like this do help the fans to share their views and feedback directly with the top management of the company. It’s beneficial for both fans and the company as fans can share their views and at the same time company can gather real time feedback directly.
Let’s see whether other smartphone companies take a leaf out of OnePlus’s book and organize such fan meetups. It will be interesting to see how such events actually are going to enable companies to develop a bond with its users.
