New Apple ads see 70% of MS ad views online
updated 08:55 pm EDT, Wed October 29, 2008
Mac PC Viral Video
In the ongoing competitive ad campaign battle between Microsoft and Apple, the recent "Get a Mac" ads have achieved nearly 70 percent of the "I'm a PC" online views, according to Visible Measures viral video research that compared numbers only from the first week after each launch. The Apple ads achieved twice as many placements with distinct URLs than the Microsoft campaign in the same period of time.
The research compared the "I'm a PC" ads with the recent Apple campaign that focused on Microsoft Vista, which included the "Bean Counter," "V Word," and "Bake Sale" ads. The placement performance showed that more people have been promulgating Apple's commercials onto blogs, news outlets, or other websites. Visible Measures did point out, however, that Microsoft's Seinfeld/Gates ads exceeded the performance of the recent campaigns from both companies.
Despite the findings of the research, it is still difficult to gauge what impact either campaign has had for the companies. Microsoft has been criticized for its previous series that included Gates and Seinfeld featured in particularly long commercials that completely avoided any talk of Microsoft products.
Apple hasn't taken the high road either with its ads that focus primarily on attacking Vista and implying that Microsoft foolishly spends money on advertising while ignoring the problems with its operating system. The money-related Mac ads were a reference to the $300 million that Microsoft is believed to have spent on its television commercials.
Tired of bashing
10/30, 08:56am reply
Although done somewhat nicely and with humor, Apple should spend more time highlighting what they do better (easier to use, better software, easier networking).
OS X allows easy switching between different networks (home vs. work). Vista doesn't. Parental controls are much easier in OS X as well as almost any configuration (control panel vs. system preferences).
Ever try managing fonts in Windows?
Minimal Viruses, faster boot times, longer times between reboot (my macbook pro has been running 2w (had to reboot due to update) before that it ran about a 6 weeks. I would like to see windows do that.
Have both guys sleeping (not together) and show the mac waking up instantly and start painting or taking photos while the PC is sloooooowly getting up.
Be creative!
dynsight
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
tired of bashing too
10/30, 02:55pm reply
I too am tired of the bashing. Apple's ads have poked fun at Windows constantly, and while some of them have been funny, some of them feel more like a tantrum.
I'd love to see the creative genius of the "get a Mac" ads turned toward making a fun/funny introduction of features and advantages. There would still be room in there to poke fun at MS simply because of the Mac advantages. Right now it's all bashing MS, but little tangible showcasing of Mac features.
mytdave
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2000
not bashing
11/14, 01:53am reply
Apple is ceasing the moment to take advantage of the unpopular Vista situation to drive home the idea that Apple equals stability and Microsoft equals instability.
bloggerblog
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2007
One person's 'bashing'...
11/14, 01:14pm reply
One person's 'bashing' is another's 'revealing truth'. Apple's marketing has focused on turning their biggest disadvantage - small market share - into their biggest advantage. It's good to be the underdog when the current market leader is unpopular. And the more painful it is to stay with the market leader, the more likely people are to try something different.
If Microsoft is unpopular with a growing percentage of customers, it's certainly in Apple's best interest to convince those people of three things:
- That their feelings about Microsoft are justified
- That there are many others who feel the same way
- And, that there is a fun (and humble, apparently) alternative
Gently poking fun at Microsoft with hilarious commercials is a pretty fantastic way to communicate all that. Besides, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to say, "everyone else is using a PC, how bad can they be?" also reinforces the fact that Apple is the cool underdog. This approach seems only capable of convincing people that aren't really looking for an alternative. The segments Apple is reaching with their underdog commercials already view the status quo as the problem. For people frustrated with Windows, Microsoft's ads actually seem to bolster Apple's position.
On a personal level, setting up an HP LaserJet on a small office network in Windows is so unintuitive that you actually need instructions or a special HP-built installer to configure it for you. It's 2008, not 1998. I can think of a few things to spend $300M on other than ads.
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999