Nearly everyone has heard about Amazon’s plans to deliver your online purchases to your doorstep in 30 minutes via a quadra-copter drone. They say it is currently research in motion, and we all know how RIM turned out… But seriously, does anyone actually believe this will happen by 2015, 2016 or 2017?

Let us consider a scenario where Amazon can do these drone deliveries flawlessly – without a toddler somehow getting sliced, where the FAA is accepts drones flying around uncontrolled (even though iPods are only just now allowed during flight takeoff and landing) and where no one will take a baseball bat to the flying target for giggles: do consumers REALLY want ANOTHER large company hovering and peeking into our backyard? (literally)

Lets just take a look at all these factors  and come to a reasonable conclusion: although Amazon IS interested in improving its delivery and operating efficiency, a fully functional drone delivery system by 2015 let alone 2020 is completely and utterly unlikely.

But here is the thing, people love the idea of drone-delivery, they L.O.V.E. it. In the last few days, I have had at least three close friends excitedly mention their eagerness for Amazon’s drone delivery. They all say Amazon is the future now.

This is where I say that Amazon’s revelation could not be better timed, right after black Friday and right at the beginning of the largest shopping spree on the year: Christmas.

This is another example where one could argue that any attention is good attention, as Amazon has definitely managed to raise more brand awareness and drive traffic to their website. Amazon has truly positioned themselves as THE online retailer for Christmas by creating hype around the brand.

However, although people are excited by Amazon’s revelations, I am yet to observe true customer advocacy as demonstrated in the Old Spice article (see previous post).