Even if you missed the 60 Minutes special with Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, I bet you’ve still seen the press on Facebook, Twitter, Hulu or just about everywhere on the Internet – Amazon wants to deliver your packages to you within 30 minutes using drones.

Yep, drones.

The new service would be called Amazon PrimeAir and will take years to develop and get FAA approval (assuming the FAA ever signs off on it).

The concept is very innovative. If you live within 10 miles of an Amazon fulfillment center and order something that weighs less than 5 pounds, Amazon will send the package zipping through the air clipping hedges along the way. Or maybe they’ll be more like these little guys from Lexus that remind me of Batteries Not Included. But I digress.

I love this idea and how Bezos is pushing the envelope. But what I really admire is how much earned media this has garnered for Amazon at a very important moment in time.

On the eve of CyberMonday, one of the most important days of the year for online retailers, Amazon grabbed headlines everywhere and commanded the attention of many social feeds. Further, Amazon PrimeAir eclipsed any mention of Amazon’s debated labor practices within its warehouses.

Had Bezos simply talked up the amazing deals that Amazon was planning to run the following day or during the holidays, no one would have cared. But drones that can deliver a package to me while I’m having a picnic in the park by tracking the GPS signal on my phone are truly amazing…and scary (any singularity believers in the crowd?).

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In other words, Amazon PrimeAir and the spot on 60 Minutes was about three things:

  1. Demonstrating that Amazon is innovative and a big thinker
  2. Driving traffic to Amazon.com on CyberMonday by putting the brand in front of every American
  3. Controlling the conversation by focusing the conversation on an irresistible water cooler topic

So although Amazon is customer obsessed and trying to better compete with brick and mortar retailers by reducing delivery times, it would seem that announcing Amazon PrimeAir was fortuitously timed.

(Though the geek in me does hope they make it happen)

And if 30 minutes is still too long for you to wait for your package, then check out Amazon Rockets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHrngvEok9M&w=582&rel=0