OnePlus spends $300k to prominently display their smartphones in House of Cards season 4
There’s something about being a smartphone/Android enthusiast that we’re constantly trying to identify every piece of tech that we come across. We’re sure you’ve done it too. Whether it’s in real life or on TV or movies, playing “spot the smartphone” is a regular occurrence for us. If you’ve been watching the latest season of House of Cards, you may have noticed an unlikely smartphone company making a cameo on the show: OnePlus.
Companies like Microsoft or Apple have been known to pay handsome sums of money to put their devices front and center, however few seconds that may be. Of course, that kind of money is peanuts for a company generating billions of dollars. For OnePlus — a smartphone startup who made a name for themselves from their non-conventional grass roots marketing — that kind of money is a lot harder to come by.
Apparently, they’ve been doing well enough that according to a post from the company on Weibo, OnePlus was willing to fork over $300,000 to get their phones — OnePlus One, OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X — into the hands of prominent House of Cards characters. For some reason, the thought of Claire Underwood trying to secure a OnePlus invite is hilarious to us. Whether it was money well spent, remains to be seen.
For a company with little to no brand recognition, the move seems puzzling to us. it’s not like anyone would walk into a carrier store and recognize a OnePlus smartphone they saw on TV. You know, if they were even sold there. But hey, it’s their money. We just hope they put aside enough dough that they could actually include NFC in their 2016 flagship, the OnePlus 3.