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Apple and the changing face of advertising
Last night I was was speaking with some marketing people about advertising campaigns. One of them asked me who I thought would make a good spokesperson for an ad campaign by a major PC vendor.
I thought for a second about the compelling ad campaigns of recent years. What were the most influencial? What has worked the best? After a few seconds, I told them "nobody."
I went on to explain that, from my perspective, the best ads have no spokespeople. These days, products seem to work best when the talking head element is removed and the product itself is presented.
At the forefront of this is Apple. Since the days of the iMac, the company has not done a single ad for its hardware that has included a human being (not counting the "I'm a Mac" platform ads.") The company has done a great job of selling the hardware rather than any sort of tagline or iconic pitchman such as the "dude, you're getting a Dell" campaign.
The best example of this is the iPod campaign. The human element is deliberately removed. You don't see people, you see the silhouette. These aren't talking heads, these are fashionable young people who could be you (or who you wish would be you) getting down with the iPod.
Other companies are now following this lead. Dell, for example, is doing something similar for its all-in-one model. Apple has, to some extent, taken the pitchman out of computer advertising. And, unless you're the former Dell teenage pitchman (who is reportedly now a bartender) this is a good thing.
Huh? What Apple campaigns have you been watching? "I'm A Mac" is the Mac's biggest continuing TV campaign ever, and it uses 2 pitchmen. The alternate TV campaign for the iPhone features real people giving testimonials--as did the "Switch to a Mac" campaign of a few years ago. The "Think Different" campaign from the late '90s featured iconic public figures. Along with the iPod ads, these are Apple's most memorable campaigns, and only the iPod campaign doesn't include pitchmen--except when it does (Eminem, Paul McCartney, Mary J. Blige, U2, Wynton Marsalis, etc.) Not to mention that Apple's biggest marketing efforts--the twice yearly keynotes by Steve Jobs--are pure, unadulterated infomercials starring the biggest celebrity pitchman in tech.
Posted by Jim | December 12, 2007 6:16 AM