LAS VEGAS — Getting the boot from AT&T’s private party and Macklemore concert last night was apparently the best thing that could have happened to T-Mobile CEO John Legere here at CES this week.
The outspoken wireless executive has been having a field day with the incident on Twitter, garnering loads of coverage and making it one of the most talked-about events at the giant tech show this week — garnering more buzz than many of the big product launches.
Whether or not Legere expected to be ousted after crashing the party — and let’s be clear, he probably did – AT&T played into his hands by having security show him the door.
Intentional or not, the incident has become part of T-Mobile’s marketing strategy. As noted by Ina Fried of Re/code, the company paid to promote this tweet by Legere, which cleverly used a line from a Macklemore song and referenced the Seattle rapper’s Twitter handle. (Macklemore hasn’t yet taken the bait with a RT to his 2 million followers.)
I wanna be free, I want to just live. @ATT preferred I didn’t do so in their party- @Macklemore catch you back in the #206
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 7, 2014
Here’s another tweet from Legere today, noting the irony of one AT&T ad at CES.
Especially when you’re kicking out the competition from your party right @ATT ?!? pic.twitter.com/U5HSGP21ak
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 7, 2014
By the way, Roger Cheng of CNet, whose picture with Legere at the party apparently alerted AT&T to its rival’s presence, noted in his recap that Legere actually got his pass to the party from Macklemore’s agent.
On Wednesday, T-Mobile gets a chance to make actual news at its CES press conference. We’ll be there covering the event, and we can only imagine what Legere will have to say about this incident on stage.