Eye of the beholder is fine for art. These are ads. There purpose is to get the few to take action. These ads are so fast it's hard for the non-tech viewer to even understand what's going on or what the apps actually do -- just hints. That's not going to get that demographic to go study up on the AW.
To your other points:
1. Apple is the one of the most recognized brand in the world -- depending on which survey you read its somewhere between #1 and #5. Apple doesn't need to run social media ads to "keep the brand alive." It's already on people's minds.
2. You are right it doesn't cost much to run a social media ad -- that was my original point. So why limit the ad to 15 seconds and say really nothing about the product, do nothing to engage the non-tech customer that Apple is trying to reach? (Help us all if Apple's intent was to reach Apple fans and early adopters).
Instead Apple should try and explain what the watch is, why a person would want it. People have apps on their iPhone already, so its up to Apple to explain why they should buy an AW as a complimentary gadget.
Really I don't think that's what those particular ads are for. They're quick, and gone, just like attention spans are short any more. What you remember is oh yeah, apple, the watch, that thing is everywhere. OK so maybe "everywhere" just means all over the net in this sprinkling of little clip ads but it will do fine as an unobtrusive "seen in the wild" substitute. We're here in tech forums so of course we know about the watch the watch the watch. Out there who cares, it's summertime but hey it's still the watch, fleeting glimpses of the watch...
It's vacation time and time for long weekends and reunions with friends and family. How should we want some weighty keynote type explanation of how a watch will work with our phone and how we can do this or that to make our life simpler. No. Like.. later for that. (and there will be new app demos when "later" arrives)
These little ads are like almost window-shopping, you walk by them (or these walk by you on the net), wow, check it out, you can do all this stuff with those watches, sometime I'll look into it... so okay but do you want to go to the beach or eat first? So later on someone says hey I saw this cute ad today for that Apple watch and someone else says oh I saw those too!
So today maybe you saw no one wearing the watch and maybe no one in your clique is into the watch yet, but the watch was.... yeah, everywhere. And a lot of people saw them. Almost as good as seeing watches in the wild. They're out there... everywhere...
Think outside the box. Apple is.
And sure, I'm just guessing. But I'm telling you my reaction, too, and I doubt I'm all that atypical. I love them, I want to find out more but not right now... I'm off to the pool!
When October comes we start getting all serious about having to deal with holiday shopping lists and some way way different ads will be right there to help make up some minds. Meanwhile these tiny ads are just what I said: markers. They're like butterflies. Something you remember in passing, but they do make an impression on a summer afternoon.
