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Apple's 'Designed by Apple' TV Ad Scoring Poorly with Viewers

wigby said:
I guarantee if they broke their focus groups down by state or even coast, you would see a huge disparity between west coast opinions vs. everyone else. It's interesting demographically but ultimately focus groups offer nothing to anyone with real focus.
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Except you can focus your advertisements regionally and not come off looking smug in one part of the country and heros in another...

It would probably be wise to center a commercial around a very small town in Indiana where kids are playing baseball and a young farmer is checking weather or something and play those ads in areas where those viewers can relate and react emotionally to it.

For example, I'm not reacting positively to those Microsoft Surface ads with hipsters dancing in a park or board room. I'm a 36 yr old dad of 3 (soon 4) who doesn't exactly connect to dub stepping with a computer....

Apple should focus their marketing on segments within their target rather than try to make sweeping ads that many segments will perceive in a way other than they intended.
 
Ad designed for Apple Fans

GreyFoxx said:
You know, I just don't get why Apple's competitors don't see or understand why they have such a hard time competing with them. Microsoft sure doesn't get it, Samsung is just throwing schit at the wall hoping something will stick (and it has, because they have thrown a LOT). HTC gets it -- just now though with the HTC One, and they have a long upward hill to climb.

The ad reveals the key to WHY Apple products are so much better. Just listen to it. Don't read in to it too much, it's just simple, and clear. Bottom line, with Apple, it's the users EXPERIENCE that matters most. Sure, design, features, specs all play a part, but not the main or most important part. Is your life improved by the EXPERIENCE of using an Apple product? If it is, then that is why it's better. Just think about what it feel like to flip and scroll and interact with an iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even AppleTV. There is a tremendous amount of attention to detail. In everything... The more you use the products, the more you feel it. You can't pick up an Apple product and get the full experience in a few minutes. Sure, you get an idea, but using it for longer periods will allow you to continually find new little things, new details that they paid attention to that no one else seems to. THAT is Apple's key to success, and I think this ad just reminds people of that.

It's funny, but here Apple is essentially giving away their "secret to success" and it's competition still doesn't get it. They just totally miss WHY Apple products are better.
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Your quote is very telling, but not in the way you might think I mean. You've ascribed a higher meaning to a simple ad campaign, and I think what you stated resonates with a lot of Apple fans. You guys just "get it". You understand the emotional appeal of Apple... you feel it. If the target demographic was just Apple fans then the campaign may have been viewed in a more positive light. Unfortunately, the campaign targeted the general public. Outside of tech forums, most people just don't "feel" about products. It doesn't make them morons or stupid as some have suggested (not you of course). It just means they are more invested in something else.

Me? I like stuff that performs the function that I need it to do. I am not really into companies. I have stuff from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, etc. It all works. That's all I care about.

As for the Engineered in California tag? If it's me, and my goal is to have a broad appeal internationally. I might have come up with something more reflective of that intent. Not everyone is as big a fan of California as Apple.
 
extradryny said:
One problem here: while consumers love their Apple devices on an individual level, I think many have mixed feelings about whether these devices have really improved our emotional lives -- as the sappy narration implies.

A young girl alone in her room staring at an iPhone, constantly connected... a woman on the subway with headphones stuck in her ears, who will never have a chance conversation with a stranger... a elementary school kid with an iPad in the classroom, who will never write legibly...

Not making a claim about the utility of iDevices - I love mine, too - but I think the mixed feelings most of us have really challenge the effectiveness of an emotion-driven campaign like this.
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You don't even begin to get it do you? The ads aren't talking about what the product can do to enrich lives, it's about the content that lives inside the product.
Did it ever occur to you that the woman with the headphones "stuck in her ears" may be listening to a song that means something special to her. Maybe she lost a loved one and the song she's listening to is uplifting or maybe she's playing a song that reminds her of her first love. Or I guess she should TALK to some crazy stranger on the subway, half-listening to that person complain about the crowds and the job they hate. ;)

The young girl starring at the iPhone in her room might be looking at photos of a close friend that suddenly moved away and it brings her pleasure.

And get real about the kid in the classroom with the iPad not being able to ever write legibly. Exaggerate much? :rolleyes:
 
The ad they showed to developers at WWDC was much more focused on the design and engineering elements and not on the "pretty people doing sentimental things" aspect, and I thought it was more impactful. Not sure if they ever ran it publicly though.

You should also keep in mind that these ads are for Apple themselves as much as for the public. It's to say, "hey, we know we got off track on design, but we're back."
 
cjmillsnun said:
Umm. No these ads are VERY apple like. I suspect they are more an ad to inside Apple to remind them of their core being. Just like this one was
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Umm. Yes, these ads are VERY UN apple like. I suspect they are more an ad to . . . . . relate to those who work for Apple, to remind them of their core being. And not to actually let people know that the products the company makes are different, and think differently and will cause you to as well.

Like this ad, that showed Apple could design a computer that not only competed with the competition, but simply stunned anyone walking passed a window

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYutehhGknI

applelurker said:
These ads however don't mean anything to anyone.
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Agreed and better yet, the ads really show that Apple has nothing left to stand on but a tagline. . . . which they don't. They just need to kick it up a notch. Like they did this time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=D0NbGbZBPL0&NR=1

robertcoogan said:
No longer is Apple the rebel. They are slowly killing their own revolution, by following the status quo themselves.

Sad.
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Apple isn't the rebel indeed. Their complacency will cause the rebels over at Samsung and Microsoft to chew away at folks that want something fresh.
 
Meh

I really don't care for the adverts at all. I usually watch everything on my TiVo so it isn't that I usually stop and watch Apple adverts intentionally, but on the rare occasion I do watch live TV, I often mute this one in particular. It is really awful, to be perfectly honest. Though I don't like them, I think insurance commercials are the worst. In fact, I really loathe anything done by Geico. I want that Gecko run over by a car already! And praise Zeus for axing the stupid cavemen!
 
petsounds said:
The ad they showed to developers at WWDC was much more focused on the design and engineering elements and not on the "pretty people doing sentimental things" aspect, and I thought it was more impactful. Not sure if they ever ran it publicly though.

You should also keep in mind that these ads are for Apple themselves as much as for the public. It's to say, "hey, we know we got off track on design, but we're back."
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Where/when exactly did Apple get off track, and where/when did they get back on track? :confused:
 
Ugh - where do I start? Responding to the people here writing their dislike for the ad and or the article itself?

I've said this in other posts on THESE ads...

I too work in marketing, in L.A., in the entertainment industry.

These ads are brilliant.

In fact the recent set of ads are brilliant.

Simply put -- one of the MOST important points to bring across in branding or product ads is to "attempt" to connect themselves to the publics LIFESTYLE. The "iPhone photo ad" was genius cuz -- in fact -- the camera has become the leading and nearly single most important part of the "iPhone experience" - invoke Instagram pun here. The music ad accomplished the same.

What numnut will challenge that Apple products in the last decade have CHANGED THE GAME -- of life? Life's lifestyle?

The new "reinforcement" ad that is scoring "low" from 500 surveyed leaves A LOT to be desired..

Apples agency is NOT out of touch. Not all ads are created equal for a reason. Is this a mass appeal ad? Hell no. why? It's a wee bit too sophisticated for the mass market. People -- that's by design -- the ad FOCUSES on Apples core - as in demographics - it's head of the curve customers that were in need of a healthy shot in the arm to stay put and hang in there. Of course it's a reinforcement ad aimed not AT its competitors but to further distinguish their stark differences.

A line I use a lot in my position is "marketing data or "scoring" is only as good as the day it was taken"... I mean if this was a "revealing" survey I'd need to KNOW the exact demos of the sample group, their locales, their income levels, education levels, ages, gender, work, and on and on and on...

I'm QUITE sure a different sample would yield a different outcome...

This HIT piece is quite frankly... A piece.....
 
Wrong ad

I like the "we make things that touch your lives" ad, but the one that blew me away was the clip they ran to open 2013 WWDC, the "lines and dots" piece.
It runs a little long, at over a minute and a half, for a commercial but shorten that down to 60s and run it.
 
The difference between the "Designed by Apple" and the "Think Different" campaigns is that saying "designed by Apple" doesn't lift you up. It's a self-centered statement that says "We're great. The end." People can't identify with that. Saying "think different" calls people to be something greater tomorrow than what they are today, and they associate the brand with that notion. If they were to say "Designed by Apple. Built in the U.S.A.", then we've got a whole different ballgame. THAT resonates. Unfortunately, they can't say that.
 
If we want to talk about surveys and how meaningful they are(n't)....according to The Next Web,

66% prefer the iOS 7 icons to their iOS 6 counterparts
 
All these new commercials show that Apple has officially changed its style of approaching advertising. They're following the tread of all other companies to try to grab peoples attention but its just back firing on them because this not Apple.

This is Apple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4acWkNihaxc

The product in your face, and thats it. Simple, basic and pure.:apple:
 
stol said:
Long time for whom? Journalists? "Analysts"?

Real people don't usually upgrade their Mac or iOS device every nine months (unless they make tons of money, I suppose...).

By the end of 2012 Apple updated most of its product line, including a brand new iPhone and a brand new iMac design. This month they just announced updates to their operating systems which, personally, excite me much more!

I really don't get this "lack of innovation" thing everyone is talking about. The things OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 will do out of the box, are amazing. Apple makes carefully planned moves and does not build superficial hardware products that flop in the market (well, at least in the past decade or so...).
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For average Joe and Jane, and sales numbers prove that. A lot of people 'hold off' on buying devices because they know something else is coming in months, and in typical Apple fashion, the device you just bought drops $100 and becomes yesterday's news.

It is not the 1 year refresh that matters as much as the TIMING. Why not spread out products like they used to? What's the point of pushing it all to September / October? Holiday season?
 
The ad is slightly more product focused than Think Different, which was pretty much a disaster.

So why would this be better? It feels like communication to people who work for Apple. It's self congratulatory.

And that would be fine if Apple were riding high on a wave of perceived innovation. But coming on top of a perceived malaise, deadly.

IIRC, this was shown at WWDC and had only mildly positive response, but not the level of enthusiasm you'd expect from people dependent on the brand. That was the best focus group, and Apple didn't listen.
 
Digital Skunk said:
The ads are very un-Apple to be honest. Instead of focusing on the device, or the experience (ala the PC vs Mac ads) they decided to focus on a tagline.

Not to mention, the company is facing a lot of criticism for its supposed "lack of innovation" and these ads aren't very innovative.
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Un-Apple? Now I thought of all people you've been around long enough to remember the "Think Different" ads? These ads are very much Apple. The problems is too many new comers are seeing Apple of today, but Apple of today is Un-Apple to me.
 
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