iDon't/I'm a Pre ads

[kkumar99]

Anyone else think it's time for Palm to start putting out iDon't (droid) style ads comparing the pre to the iphone, or "i'm a pre (i'm a mac/i'm a pc) style ads to simply outline all the things the pre can do that the iphone can't (i think the 2nd one would be especially effective for sprint showing that the pre has the capability of doing a lot of the stuff the iphone can, but's it's wayyy cheaper).

Any thoughts?

[bruba]

It'd be funny if they'd do it just for once to make fun of those lame I'm a Mac ads. Else, no..

[Calmpewter]

Bring back the Witch ...

[bruba]

Originally Posted by Calmpewter

Bring back the Witch ...

"Hi, I'm a cyborg."
"And I'm a Mac."
BOOM!
(mac guy gone)

[semprini]

Palm could have done something similar but that time is passed. It's one thing to compare your product to another in an "in-your-face" manner (as Droid did), but it's another to copy someone who's already doing it. That would make them look especially desperate.

Palm's initial campaign was weak, IMO. (It reminded me of the launch of the Inifiniti auto brand...quiet, abstract ads that never showed the car.) The pale lady gave a creepy vibe with her look and monotone voice. Honestly, their pre-launch website would have been a better ad than Pale Lady since it effectively showed integration and multi-tasking.

[sudoer]

Luckily Ruby said the creepy lady is gone!

I think Verizon knows how to jab back at AT&T (so you'll probably see Pre/Pixi ads with more "meat" in them as compared to the initial Sprint ones)

[Kyusaku]

I'm happy with the great ad campaign they're doing with the Pixi. Great visually and good choice of music. They need Pre ads by the crew behind that campaign.

I can't stand these versus ads, especially as of late the Luke Wilson ones from AT&T. Just absolutely petty. The Verizon map ones are amusing though.

[Calmpewter]

But wasn't the Creepy Witch Cyborg Lady distinctive in a "Ring-around-the-Collar" Wisk detergent type of way? The guy who sells the most cars in this part of my state is VERY annoying ... Just saying she stood out in a sea of blah ads on the plug-in drug.

[playboy]

It took Sprint about 7 months to start mentioning the name of the Pre in their commercials. It two weeks before the Pre and Pixi launches on Verizon and no commercials. Jon R from Palm said at the All Things D Conference at CES that Verizon is going to spend alot of money on commercials for the Plusses. We'll see.

[playboy]

Originally Posted by Kyusaku

I'm happy with the great ad campaign they're doing with the Pixi. Great visually and good choice of music. They need Pre ads by the crew behind that campaign.

I can't stand these versus ads, especially as of late the Luke Wilson ones from AT&T. Just absolutely petty. The Verizon map ones are amusing though.

The Pixi adds are great.

The Verizon ads taking ATT to task for their weak network are great. ATT ads against Verizon are just horrible. The island of misfit toys is still my favorite.

[mikah912]

I think the Pixi ads just suck LESS, but they are by no means great.

WebOS is the biggest asset Palm has, and yet they haven't produced a single commercial explaining in visual close-up and detail how great it is.

As long as that remains the case, they're crippling themselves. And it looks like by the time they get around to doing it, most of those features (Synergy, universal search) will be copied and bettered by competing platforms. Simply producing contemporary music ads with a bunch of hipsters swiping stuff on/off the screen means their commercials look just like HTC ones.

[playboy]

Originally Posted by mikah912

I think the Pixi ads just suck LESS, but they are by no means great.

WebOS is the biggest asset Palm has, and yet they haven't produced a single commercial explaining in visual close-up and detail how great it is.

As long as that remains the case, they're crippling themselves. And it looks like by the time they get around to doing it, most of those features (Synergy, universal search) will be copied and bettered by competing platforms. Simply producing contemporary music ads with a bunch of hipsters swiping stuff on/off the screen means their commercials look just like HTC ones.

But people want to see hipsters swiping things on and off the screen with cool music playing in the background before Gossip Girl or the Real World comes back before the commercial break. But I'd also agree with you that Palm also needs commercials that show functionality.

[semprini]

Originally Posted by mikah912

I think the Pixi ads just suck LESS, but they are by no means great.

WebOS is the biggest asset Palm has, and yet they haven't produced a single commercial explaining in visual close-up and detail how great it is.

As long as that remains the case, they're crippling themselves. And it looks like by the time they get around to doing it, most of those features (Synergy, universal search) will be copied and bettered by competing platforms. Simply producing contemporary music ads with a bunch of hipsters swiping stuff on/off the screen means their commercials look just like HTC ones.

I agree. The Pixi ads are far more energetic than the Pre, and they should be based upon the target demographic. Even so, such an ad campaign probably wouldn't be best for the Pre; it swings too far to the "we're-young-and-hip-so-lets-all-have-fun-and-laugh-and-stuff" side of things.

SHOW OFF WebOS!!! Show how the system's features make it unique and have practical application to a wide variety of users. The Sprint ads ("Now Network") do a much better job than the original Palm ads, although their pace is almost too hectic to get the point across.

[sudoer]

Originally Posted by Calmpewter

But wasn't the Creepy Witch Cyborg Lady distinctive in a "Ring-around-the-Collar" Wisk detergent type of way? The guy who sells the most cars in this part of my state is VERY annoying ... Just saying she stood out in a sea of blah ads on the plug-in drug.

Yes, provided you want people to think your ad department are clueless idiots and you should buy their product out of pity. To me, they just said: if I'm a zombie, I'll want a Pre. The ring around the collar ads told me that their product supposedly gets out tough dirt (but even so, I still prefer Tide, simply because it works - not due to any advertising). The "Maytag repairman" tells me that their products supposedly are reliable (but Consumer Reports repair/reliability reports tell me otherwise).

In my case (going from Treos to a Pre), I like the "less hassle" factor of WebOS and it's cloud centric-ness. When I jab and poke the OS in a way it does not like, restoring it is easy and my email and calendar are still on Google and automatically reappear correctly. Even app catalog apps come back. It's this sort of "when things go wrong, I can easily recover" and "my data is anywhere I need to see it from" that I really like. So if I forget to charge my phone, I can look online at my calendar. If I forget the exact address of an appointment I put in my Google calendar, I can still get it while mobile. It's when you "get too busy" that synergy helps me the most. If Palm could figure a way to capitalize on situations like this that many could identify with, then that sort of commercial would really drive demand to WebOS.

[DSPKweb]

Show us the Juggler!!!!!

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by playboy

But people want to see hipsters swiping things on and off the screen with cool music playing in the background before Gossip Girl or the Real World comes back before the commercial break. But I'd also agree with you that Palm also needs commercials that show functionality.

But again...someone else's ads ALREADY do that. WebOS needs to stand apart, not just be yet another colorful, touchscreen, iPhone-esque choice for buyers.

Apple's iPhone ads, which run on programs reaching several different demographics, simply show off the advantages of the platform, and MAKE THEM MATTER. Did the public-at-large care about apps on mobile devices before Apple showed them how great they were? No.

Palm needs to make people care about visual multitasking the same way. Roger MacNamee repeatedly says that the Pre (and by extension, WebOS) is for busy people trying to get things done. Gosh, visual multitasking might help with that goal. Where could we explain that to people to make them interested in the device....hmmmmm.....dunno.

[netwrkr9]

Show us any commercial, geez, Palm has not had a Pre commercial on TV since Sept. The only advertisement of the Pre that I see is when Sprint gives it a small spot in their ads. Maybe Palm is saving their advertising $ for the launch of the Pre on the Verizon network.

[playboy]

Originally Posted by mikah912

But again...someone else's ads ALREADY do that. WebOS needs to stand apart, not just be yet another colorful, touchscreen, iPhone-esque choice for buyers.

Apple's iPhone ads, which run on programs reaching several different demographics, simply show off the advantages of the platform, and MAKE THEM MATTER. Did the public-at-large care about apps on mobile devices before Apple showed them how great they were? No.

Palm needs to make people care about visual multitasking the same way. Roger MacNamee repeatedly says that the Pre (and by extension, WebOS) is for busy people trying to get things done. Gosh, visual multitasking might help with that goal. Where could we explain that to people to make them interested in the device....hmmmmm.....dunno.

There's always going to be someone else doing 'that'. You can't get away from it and it produces mindshare. WebOS will standout when folks go into the store to use the UI versus using the UI of another phone. Palm can do a multitasking commercial but they also need those other two commercials I mentioned in my previous post so that they can reach several different demographics as you mentioned Apple does.

The folks watching Gossip Girl, including myself prolly don't care about multi tasking, I do care about multitasking. Fine. Just show them the hipsters -swinging-around-swiping-stuff off the screen commercials. Use the multitasking ad during Grey Anatomy or Heroes b/c it prolly matters to folks watching those shows. You can do commercials where you show the advantages of the platform and how it improves your life but doing those commercials along with the 'hipster' commercials aren't mutually exclusive.

[igobytony]

what they need to do in the ads is show someone using the phone. surfing the web, getting a notification for a text, checking that text, opening fandango and checking movie times, going back to the text to tell them when it is...\

or playing a video game and getting an eamil notification, going to the email, seeing that it's a FB event invite, clicking on the link to cenfirm, showing how it was just automagically added to your calander, them messaging someone else to see if their going...

they need to take the demos they did at CES and cut it down to commercial length. i think people would sit though a 45-90 second commercial like that. the problem with the palm ads is that it doesn't show off how awesome it is to use these devices. once you've got like five things going and are able to smoothly go between and manage all of them it's just an amazing experience. i know it's hard to get across in a commercial how truly great it is to live w a webos devices, but they need to find a way. people act like the pre is some POS little device, and it's kind of sad because they really do not know what they are missing out on.

we should film me for two minutes using my pre, and make it an add. people would be like ***?? that thing is MAGIC!

[cardfan]

I think Palm tries to be too creative. WebOS sells itself if you make it the star of the commercial. IMO.. A little show and tell might be in order before being aggressive which btw..doesn't seem to fit the image Palm tries to portray.