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LightWaver-67 · Mar 22, 2003, 07:34 AM

There haven't been switch ads on TV and there haven't been any new additions to the website or the campaign overall.

I am curious to the oveerall effectiveness of the campaign... initially, Apple was claiming it to be an overwhelming success, yet it appears to be dead-in-the-water right now.

I'm thinking that it either was:

a) effective at first but the buzz died-down

b) effective all-throughout, but was getting expensive to maintain for the amount of revenue it generated

c) Not very effective at all

d) regardless of effectiveness, it ran it's course and it was time to move-on to a new marketing strategy

e) (unlikely) just a lag, but they will resume with new ones soon

Anyhow, they have kinda disapeared from the prime-time TV map for the moment... other than the new PowerBook ads. I can't wait (hope they do) for OSX advertising... SOMETHING to extole the virtues of their operating system.

Any thoughts...?

OptimusG4 · Mar 22, 2003, 07:39 AM

Speaking of ads, anyone remember the brief appearance of some OS X ads about 3-4 months ago? Did you save any? (I remember one being about iChat, with the bright Aqua-esque smilies bouncing about...)

superblue · Mar 22, 2003, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by OptimusG4:
Speaking of ads, anyone remember the brief appearance of some OS X ads about 3-4 months ago? Did you save any? (I remember one being about iChat, with the bright Aqua-esque smilies bouncing about...)

Yeah - there was one called Zoom, and another with a big 'X' running about like something off Sesame St...

OwlBoy · Mar 22, 2003, 12:50 PM

My belief is that those ads were made by Apple employees. They did not look very professional, ok, zoom did, but its too long.

-Owl

xtal · Mar 22, 2003, 12:51 PM

Originally posted by LightWaver-67:
e) (unlikely) just a lag, but they will resume with new ones soon

That one is my bet.

Apple seems to be concentrating on new hardware of late (PBs, iMacs, Powermacs, etc.). When all the frantic hardware updating and announcements have died down, we'll have a slew of cool new products. That means it's time to fire up the Switch campaign again to lure more Windows users into the fold.

Truepop · Mar 22, 2003, 12:56 PM

I saved all the x movies but I have dial up so I can't get them to any body.

Ilja · Mar 22, 2003, 01:27 PM

I'm living in Europe (Netherlands) and never have seen any apple-commercials on television. I think they should, lots and lots of people don't even know about Mac OSX

euphras · Mar 22, 2003, 01:58 PM

Quote:

"I'm living in Europe (Netherlands) and never have seen any apple-commercials on television. I think they should, lots and lots of people don't even know about Mac OSX"

Amen to that!

SupahCoolX · Mar 22, 2003, 02:49 PM

It's probably just a lag while they prep the new Al Gore Switch Ad.

sushiism · Mar 22, 2003, 07:42 PM

Theres been tons and tons of new powerbook ads in england, most apple ads ive ever seen. We don't get switch ads here for legal issues involving mentioning your competitors products or something

moonmonkey · Mar 22, 2003, 09:10 PM

Im living in China and Discovery Channel (Asia Pacific?) is showing the mini me powerbook add in practicaly every break.

Starting to tire a bit, maybe I should change the channel.

Detrius · Mar 22, 2003, 10:13 PM

I work in a larg chain of small electronics stores that is incredibly biased towards PCs. Ever since the "Switch" campaign started, people complaining about their PC's finish up the comment with "Maybe I should get a Mac." That never happened before the switch campaign. Believe it or not, it is getting the impression into people's minds that Macs are better than Windows PCs. I believe another few years of it along with a bunch of other adds that show the coolness of the Mac and we'll be on the slow road uphill.

Superchicken · Mar 22, 2003, 11:08 PM

Hmm interesting it might be that they don't wanna get to many adds on right now since there's a war... at the same time though... I think possibly a patriotic apple add might be able to at least make people think differently.. then again many of apple's current buyers are quite liberal so they might not like that...

OptimusG4 · Mar 23, 2003, 10:19 AM

Originally posted by Detrius:
I work in a larg chain of small electronics stores that is incredibly biased towards PCs. Ever since the "Switch" campaign started, people complaining about their PC's finish up the comment with "Maybe I should get a Mac." That never happened before the switch campaign. Believe it or not, it is getting the impression into people's minds that Macs are better than Windows PCs. I believe another few years of it along with a bunch of other adds that show the coolness of the Mac and we'll be on the slow road uphill.

I agree. When I worked at Staples, I had people asking me why we didn't carry Macs as an alternative to PC's. Made me smile a bit, cause they didn't say 'sucks' after saying 'Mac'.

Superchicken · Mar 23, 2003, 03:12 PM

Two years ago there were three guys in a computer class that bugged me about having a Mac... one of them is gona buy an iBook soon

Chuckit · Mar 23, 2003, 05:31 PM

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
I think possibly a patriotic apple add might be able to at least make people think differently.. then again many of apple's current buyers are quite liberal so they might not like that...

I'm pretty sure there's a bad assumption somewhere in there....

The Ginger Rat · Mar 23, 2003, 06:21 PM

My bet is a hiatus, then the ads will start again.

BTW, anyone else think the Hersheys and Clarica(?) ads are visually inspired by the Switch ads?

Mark Tungston · Mar 23, 2003, 08:16 PM

Originally posted by The Ginger Rat:
My bet is a hiatus, then the ads will start again.

BTW, anyone else think the Hersheys and Clarica(?) ads are visually inspired by the Switch ads?

yes and a whole bunch more

and No, switch ads are dead

Appleman · Mar 24, 2003, 04:29 AM

Originally posted by Ilja:
I'm living in Europe (Netherlands) and never have seen any apple-commercials on television. I think they should, lots and lots of people don't even know about Mac OSX

All the people I know who have seen OS X on one of my Macs do really fall in disbelieve, more or less the "Shock & Awe" idea.

We are talking about Bondi Blue iMac ("wow! were can I get one"), 500 MHz Ti ("this is absolutely gorgious and fast!") and, of course, the iPod ("2000 songs?!").

The problem however is the price. Believe it or not, people do care about money

Here in Europe, prices are rediculous much higher than in the States (just go and check an European AppleStore -all prices are equal, in euros which is more or less the same as a dollar nowadays).

However Macs are generally used widely in tv series here in Holland, and the Apple logo is very often placed well! Sometimes they even have done the logo away in such a bad way, one start to think what should have been there

Anyway, the biggest problem is that people simply do not know the Mac.
That's were advertisement comes in, one would say...
Not in the Netherlands (Holland) though, since it's controlled by Apple Europe (haedquarters = Paris).

Really a shame, since there is quite some market overhere. People simply don't know the beauty and go buy a peecee.