Cross-border promotion

As part of the U.S. book launch I signed several dozen books with personal inscriptions for mailing to American political and business leaders, top journalists as well as mavens in several other arenas.

Recipients include Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Larry King. Among authors, journalists and commentators are Malcolm Gladwell, Graydon Carter, Walter S. Mossberg and Jim Cramer. Business leaders include Bill Gates and Andy Grove.

In so doing, we took a page out of RIM’s early strategy: give away the product to “seed” the market among those who matter. Malcolm Gladwell explained the phenomenon in his book, The Tipping Point.

Will mailrooms and staff actually pass along the book to President Obama or Ms. Winfrey? Who knows? Mighty trees from little acorns grow.