Details on Upcoming Mac Ads?

[Flying Llama]

I hope, as others have said, that the new ads will be more fast-paced, but slow enough to atleast understand. I also hope that this time they show actuall clips of osx, mention that as of now there is not one single virus, and maybe some other cool tricks (show eye candy in some of the spots, some people switch just for the minimization of windows and magnification of the dock! )

EDIT: Or as slb has posted while I was writing this post.

 

[polyesterlester]

OS 9 sucked. OS 9 was the reason many people in their late teens and 20's never chose the Mac platform in the first place. Without OS X, I wouldn't have switched to the Mac platform, as any version of Windows after 3.1 was superior to Macs until OS X was released. Coincidentally, the iPod was released in 2001, the same year as OS X. Apple would've gone down the crapper if they hadn't came out with the iPod and OS X. Unfortunately at my school newspaper, I still have 2 iMacs running OS 9 with 768 MB of RAM; they're the most unreliable pieces of crap ever made. The other 2 machines I have at the office (2 Powermac G4 dual 867's) running Jaguar are so much better.

If using the iPod in ads for OS X is what it takes to get people to switch to the Mac platform, then so be it.

OS 9 did suck, that's true. I preferred it to Windows, but it still sucked.

 

[scotty321]

The switcher ads were very ineffective switching people across America to Macs, even though I personally enjoyed them. I actually think they were too "intellectual" for most of America -- a talking head is probably not the best way to get information across since (let's face it) most people just tune it out. Dancing silhouettes are such a great easy sell... but then again, that's a musc product, not a computer.

 

[gwangung]

In my book, Apple's campaign will be

a) NOTHING like anything mentioned so far on this thread...and
b) Be twenty times as effective as anything anyone's mentioned. As marketing experts, most Mac fanatics make....good Mac fanatics....

 

[slb]

The switcher ads were very ineffective switching people across America to Macs, even though I personally enjoyed them. I actually think they were too "intellectual" for most of America -- a talking head is probably not the best way to get information across since (let's face it) most people just tune it out. Dancing silhouettes are such a great easy sell... but then again, that's a musc product, not a computer.

That's the thing, you could totally make a great hip commercial like that showing off the beauty of the iMac and the Mac mini, how great OS X looks and feels, and how there are no viruses or trojans for the Mac at all. You wouldn't need talking heads, just cool commercials with color and music.

The "Switch" ads were annoying. People don't want to hear Mac users talk to a camera about why they switched. They want to SEE why they switched. Show 'em!

 

[slb]

In my book, Apple's campaign will be

a) NOTHING like anything mentioned so far on this thread...and
b) Be twenty times as effective as anything anyone's mentioned. As marketing experts, most Mac fanatics make....good Mac fanatics....

Apple's track record on Mac commercials isn't exactly stunning. iPods, of course, are a different story.

I'm no "Mac fanatic." I'm a normal person who knows what would work for other normal people. Watch an iPod commercial and see how unbelievably hip and great they are. Then go watch an old "Switch" ad and see how decidedly deflated, bland, and boring it is. Apple has to show, not tell. Why are these people going on about Macs? Let me see them.

Show someone a virus-free Mac mini next to a Windows PC tower and they're sold. Show them an iMac G5 and their jaw drops as they look for the computer and realize it's in the screen. A Mac commercial should be as visceral and revealing as it is for Windows users who enter an Apple store for the first time and try out the Mac computers there and leave astonished and wanting more.

Would you want to hear some person off the street telling you how great a new Mac is, or would you want to SEE the Mac for yourself with color and music? I don't need Ellen Feiss to tell me how great Macs are; remove the middle man and show me the Macs.

 

[auxplage]

OS 9 sucked. OS 9 was the reason many people in their late teens and 20's never chose the Mac platform in the first place. Without OS X, I wouldn't have switched to the Mac platform, as any version of Windows after 3.1 was superior to Macs until OS X was released. Coincidentally, the iPod was released in 2001, the same year as OS X. Apple would've gone down the crapper if they hadn't came out with the iPod and OS X. Unfortunately at my school newspaper, I still have 2 iMacs running OS 9 with 768 MB of RAM; they're the most unreliable pieces of crap ever made. The other 2 machines I have at the office (2 Powermac G4 dual 867's) running Jaguar are so much better.

If using the iPod in ads for OS X is what it takes to get people to switch to the Mac platform, then so be it.

OS 9 is fine IMO. I have used it a bit, and I encountered no problems. While it is vastly inferior to OS X, I still like it better than Windows.

I cannot wait to see the new ads. Hopefully, as mentioned in other posts, OS X will be highlighted, and the great computers Apple makes for it to run on. Do not focus on the computers; focus on the OS.

 

[~Shard~]

Apple's track record on Mac commercials isn't exactly stunning. iPods, of course, are a different story.

Mac commercials specifically, no, that's true, but there have been a number of excellent Apple ads over the years - take a look at some of them here.

Show someone a virus-free Mac mini next to a Windows PC tower and they're sold. Show them an iMac G5 and their jaw drops as they look for the computer and realize it's in the screen. A Mac commercial should be as visceral and revealing as it is for Windows users who enter an Apple store for the first time and try out the Mac computers there and leave astonished and wanting more.

Exactly. These new ads don't have to be complicated and convoluted. Just say it the way it is, Apple. Keep it simple. Just like your user experience.

 

[CubaTBird]

apple should kick it old school, like they did with those old pc vs mac commercials.. i can just see it.. "want a computer without the spyware and adware? the choice is clear... macintosh" that would rock..

 

[Kerry Sanders]

I had forgotten about seeing the Power Mac G5 commercial. It has been a while, so that is why I forgot it. That was a good commercial.

 

[oskar]

OS 9 sucked. OS 9 was the reason many people in their late teens and 20's never chose the Mac platform in the first place. Without OS X, I wouldn't have switched to the Mac platform, as any version of Windows after 3.1 was superior to Macs until OS X was released. Coincidentally, the iPod was released in 2001, the same year as OS X. Apple would've gone down the crapper if they hadn't came out with the iPod and OS X. Unfortunately at my school newspaper, I still have 2 iMacs running OS 9 with 768 MB of RAM; they're the most unreliable pieces of crap ever made. The other 2 machines I have at the office (2 Powermac G4 dual 867's) running Jaguar are so much better.

If using the iPod in ads for OS X is what it takes to get people to switch to the Mac platform, then so be it.

That was only your experience. I on the other used Macs since OS 8 and I always liked OS9 better than any windows before XP.
And... for some weird reason you could still use OS9 apps in classic mode under OSX ever since the first release, which obviously means something good about it. I don't know anything about security issues or stuff like that, but before XP, I never saw Windows as a respectful OS, unlike OS9.

But, I also agree that OS X is the best reason to switch to a Mac today and if it wasn't for OS X, Apple wouldn't be where it is and neither would Microsoft.
Microsoft probably "would've gone down the crapper" also if OS X wasn't released. XP obviously appeared thanks to that.

 

[AndrewMT]

I was never a big fan of the switcher ads because, if I remember correctly, the products advertised were never shown. And for Apple to not show their beautiful hardware and software is just plain stupid.

 

[fpnc]

In case anyone is keeping "score," I didn't care much for the original switcher ads either. I'd prefer that Apple try to show (briefly) actual solutions using the Mac. Maybe show a technical solution (yes, people actually use Macs to solve problems) and then show a "simple" user doing something basic -- like sending a picture to their grandparents. Same OS and basic hardware where in one case a doctor is doing research on the human genome and then we switch to a home user sending an email to "grandpa" (that same doctor).

Or how about a director cutting a film with Final Cut Pro followed by a young user searching the internet for information about that very same film.

They should show the products, maybe a Power Mac for the doctor, a 20" iMac G5 for the director, and a Mac mini or iBook (or another iMac) for the home users. And make it look cool with a flyby from the outside of the Mac followed by a zoom inside the Power Mac, down the wire, to the other user sitting at his Mac mini/iBook/iMac (or vice versa).

OS 9 sucked. OS 9 was the reason many people in their late teens and 20's never chose the Mac platform in the first place. Without OS X, I wouldn't have switched to the Mac platform, as any version of Windows after 3.1 was superior to Macs until OS X was released...

I'd say any version of Windows prior to Windows 95 was an absolute joke. It was only after Microsoft released some of the later versions of NT that the Mac OS started to look bad (in comparison).

 

[Avicdar]

Apple's track record on Mac commercials isn't exactly stunning. iPods, of course, are a different story.

I don't exactly remember her name, but didn't a fairly high up marketing genius from HP join Apple in the last several months? This, from my understanding, was the person responsible for those HP ads featuring digital photography (people jumping around, picking them as snapshots out of the air, etc - sung to 'Picture Book' or some such) Anyone who I have talked with about those commercials think they are pretty cool.

Anyways - my point is that there is new marketing blood at Apple, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if what comes out of it is pretty darn good. Apple has virtually no gaps in its product line now, something for everyone at every price point. They have a new OS thats gotten amazing press, and Apple is better known than ever because of the iPod.

The time is absolutely right for a major Mac marketing push. The real challenge is going to be managing to sell the Mac based on the things that we all know they do so well. Its hard to encapsulate that convincingly in a small, quick ad. I am hoping for a series of ads with a single common character throughout them that addresses the strengths of the Mac throughout the campaign.

They really DO need to get this right, though. I hope they focus group the hell out of it with windows users, and make sure it blows them away. Mac users are already convinced - these ads shouldn't be for us.

 

[mymemory]

Of course Apple has no Powermacs ads!

If Apple had a computer equivalent to the iPod it would de a G5 dual 3.6 Ghz at list!

That support my old signature when I said: The king has no clothes. The G5 is not "such" incredible computer and is way overrated! Many people tell me... but did you add more ram? Do I need to ad 2 extra GB of Ram to get some "decent" speed? That is around $4000 already! and the speed everybody is braging about is just Video Ram!

Without the iPod and the iTMS Apple would be in bankropsy! and every Mac user in their right mind should be aware of that.

Now, do not come to me about Tiger, yes is the new OS but is less than a month old and the 64 bit G5 lie is more than 2 yeasr old.

I am just telling based on my 10 yeasr of experience using Macs.

 

[~Shard~]

I had forgotten about seeing the Power Mac G5 commercial. It has been a while, so that is why I forgot it. That was a good commercial.

But if it was a good commercial, shouldn't you have remembered it?

 

[bentley]

But if it was a good commercial, shouldn't you have remembered it?

it was so good it got banned for being misleading.

 

[~Shard~]

it was so good it got banned for being misleading.

Now that I remember! What was the claim again, fastest desktop in the world?

 

[swingerofbirch]

creative idea

when i was in the 8th grade, i sent apple an e-mail telling them an idea for a great ad, i vaguely remember it (i am now 22), this was long before ipods, mac os x, and imacs, but here's the jist:


there's this guy painstakingly eating a window he's holding in his hand. a close up shows him munchin on the wood and the paint chips stuffed in his mouth,

then cut to a guy taking a clean crisp bite of an apple sitting in front of an imac (i'm updating this part), where lots of cool stuff is happening on the screen, the camera spins around him and then the apple with the bite taken out and the apple with the bite taken out morphs to the apple logo, with below, Apples Taste Better Than Windows

 

[bbyrdhouse]

Well it would be nice to see something besides those siloette ads.

I concur!

I thought the "Switcher" ads were pretty cool.

 

[bbyrdhouse]

when i was in the 8th grade, i sent apple an e-mail telling them an idea for a great ad, i vaguely remember it (i am now 22), this was long before ipods, mac os x, and imacs, but here's the jist:


there's this guy painstakingly eating a window he's holding in his hand. a close up shows him munchin on the wood and the paint chips stuffed in his mouth,

then cut to a guy taking a clean crisp bite of an apple sitting in front of an imac (i'm updating this part), where lots of cool stuff is happening on the screen, the camera spins around him and then the apple with the bite taken out and the apple with the bite taken out morphs to the apple logo, with below, Apples Taste Better Than Windows

I like it.
Apples taste better than penguins too.

 

[beatle888]

i wish they had a REASON to do an "i switched to mac cause apple had the best tools for me to run my business" commercial. yet all we get are consumer iApps and such. apple needs to give professionals some meat instead of all this candy. try running a business with ical as your calendar, address book and mail. i realized this today and its the second time i wrote it in a post. i now see that apple is a powerful consumer product. and can be used in some pro aspects as far as production and creation. but as far as RUNNING the business...apple doesnt even attempt to address these needs unless you consider iwork an attempt.

 

[Kerry Sanders]

But if it was a good commercial, shouldn't you have remembered it?

I should have remembered it, but since I am pretty old [37 ] and it has been a while, I did not remember it until I watched it again from the video archive link that was posted earlier in this thread.

 

[slb]

Do not focus on the computers; focus on the OS.

They should focus on both, not only because the computers are beautiful and cool-looking and take up much less space than a PC, but you kinda have to buy the computers anyway to run OS X.

Nobody will know what "OS X" is but they'll definitely enjoy seeing an iMac. OS X should just be portrayed as part of it, which it really is any way (Windows users also consider Windows to just be a part of the computer and not a seperately installable piece of software).

 

[Thataboy]

Lame. Those ads DID NOT WORK.

Windows users don't care about what some hippy says. "Like, I used the iPod, and thought, wow this is so cool and so easy, what else can Apple do??" Pathetic.

The ads need to show, up close, in detail, OS X. Show someone USING it. Don't TELL us that they are easy to use, SHOW us. Hook up a digital camera and show how it imports to iPhoto. Show us iTunes/iPod integration. Show us Spotlight. Show us Dashboard. Show us using MS Office 2004. SHOW US.

People are blown away when they see OS X in action. But most people don't ever bother looking because they think Mac = OS 9.