new microsoft tv ads - microsoft concedes it ain't cool but its cheap

can't find the actual ad on youtube yet, but here is the write up on microsoft's new tv ads. based on the article, the new microsoft ad continue to copy the apple/mac ad line and ad campaign of "i'm a pc" which microsoft already used in their 2nd round ad cammpaign after the failed gates/seinfeld ad campaign.

the ad positions the microsoft/windows/pc as a cheap in price brand, a value brand. it's a good message to put across given the recession that's eroding the US economy and as more US consumers get hit by it. it's also a good strategy given the fact that macs continue to be at a premium pricing. the cheap brand positioning separates microsoft/windows/pc from macs.

good value positioning can be relevant in times of economic hardships. we just don't know if good value positioning works well on computers. good value positioning may work well for food products, but it might not work for high priced lifestyle products like computers.

the part that is unusual is that the ad concedes microsoft/windows/pc is not a cool brand/product. the ad is about real people (not talents) who were asked to buy computers (read details on article) and that was the conclusion of the woman in the ad who went into an apple store but was unable to find a mac that fit her budget and her needs. in one of the ads, a woman leaves an apple store unable to buy a mac and says: "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person."

a brand not being cool may be the truth for some brands (like microsoft/windows/pc?) but its not necessary to admit that in the advertising. to admit outright a computer brand (or any product) is not cool may mean the death of that brand. people who buy computers will hardly admit they are not cool. in fact people who own computers think they are cool given the fact that they own a computer. being cool is part and parcel of buying a computer, it's a key mindset.

the basic idea behind advertising is you put your best foot forward for consumers to admire and appreciate the brand and from there you get them to buy the brand. positive motivation from the product quality and performance is what works best in advertising. you intentionally leave out the negatives or weaknesses of your brand. weaknesses are exposed by competitors, is what apple did to windows vista in their "i'm a mac" ad campaign. this one does not hide it at all, it declared the brand's weakness.

it's a weird thing to do for an ad.

the other school of thought, which microsoft's ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, seem to like to do (this ad agency has done this before for other clients) is to admit the fault or weakness of the brand outright and get the consumers to decide if they can get over the negative and buy the product just the same.

so now we have microsoft/windows/pcs saying they are cheap and they are not cool. it's a brand character that is neither here nor there. in fact, it can be seen as negative or unlikeable brand character.

at minimum, that kind of positioning can be polarizing - some people will love it but some people will hate it. it's always risky to release an ad that has the potential to polarize your target audience. the thinking is you release the best ad you can make and that usually entails you are 100% the ad is perfect and will be loved by your target audieence. the risk you take in releasing polarizing ads is that the negative might eventually overpower the negative and you end up more people disliking the ad and brand being advertised than liking it.

the other weakness of this ad is the continuing use of the "I'm a PC" line microsoft copied from the apple/mac ads. we have not seen the tv ad but it appears that is the case based on this article.

microsoft should have just developed their own, unique advertising line. it does not serve the microsoft brand well if they keep reminding people it is copying something from apple in their own tv ads. those apple ads where microsoft copied were the ads that hurt the windows brand badly and has caused it's deterioration in stature. why remind the people of it further?

what is the point of reminding people tiny apple was able to beat giant microsoft in the advertising war? what? further increase windows users inferiority complex?

----

I'm a PC, and this time Microsoft's buying

By Jessica Mintz, Associated Press


SEATTLE — Apple's Macintosh computers may be cool, but Windows PCs are easier on the wallet.

That's the recession-sensitive message Microsoft is pushing in a new series of commercials that debuted Thursday. The ads also continue Microsoft's work to reclaim the "I'm a PC" catchphrase from Apple Inc. and undo the stodgy image its competitor has bestowed on the Windows operating system.

To shoot the ads, Microsoft's agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, recruited unwitting subjects by posing as a market research firm studying laptop purchasing decisions.

It picked 10 people who answered a call for volunteers on Craigslist and other websites and sent them out with a camera crew and budgets ranging from $700 to $2,000. If they found a computer that fit their criteria, they could keep it.

In the first 60-second spot, a red-haired recent college grad named Lauren is on the hunt for a speedy laptop with a 17-inch screen and a "comfortable" keyboard, all for less than $1,000. She strides into an Apple store; then, the scene jumps to her walking out empty-handed, telling the camera that the only laptop in her price range has a 13-inch screen.

Back in the car, she sighs and says, "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person."

read in full here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/software/2009-03-26-microsoft-ad_N.htm?csp=usat.me

Brand Boyet Fajardo - defined by youtube, again!

we wrote about how youtube is today's powerful definer of brand equity. we talked about that in relation to Hollywood's christian bale. (read here: http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2009/03/youtube-todays-most-eloquent-definer-of.html)

here is one that happened here in the philippines recently. this whole thing started at youtube with bloggers and numerous pinoy bulletin boards talking about it in the internet. and in no time, it jumped into mass media.



before this youtube posting, i did not know who on earth is Boyet Fajardo. it was the first time i heard of the name and also the first time that i knew this boyet fajardo is a fashion designer who has clothing lines being sold in many of the department stores.

but now i know his name and his youtube fame, i will not buy any of his clothes even if you put a gun into my head.

this boyet fajardo actually appeared on tv the next day the above news item was shown on national tv. in it, he tried to apologize. but something was wrong in his apology. well two things. one, on camera he did not appear sincere at all on his apology. he was not even looking at the camera. and if he was really sincere with his apology, shouldn't he have tried to get in touch with the salesperson that he humiliated? no mention of his effort to personally apologize to that poor guy.

second, his ending statement bothered me very much. he said he came from a long trip and was very tired. after a few more sentences, he concluded that he was sorry as "both of them (him and the sales person he humiliated) were victims"!!!

huh? how in the world was he a victim? he was a victim of jet lag? that is just the icing on the cake on his insincerity.

because of this boyet fajardo's youtube fame, Brand Boyet Fajardo has been clearly defined for me, even before i actually saw the brand. i even won't use his clothing line as rags even if he gave them to me for free or even if he paid me to do so.

read about boyet fajardo asking forgiveness from the wrong person here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/boyet-fajardo-asks-forgiveness-from-the-wrong-person/

tHe idiOts proMo : Shell Lubricants price off will not lubricate consumer purchase

all consumer promotions, including price offs, are meant to generate increased purchase or trial of a product. it is meant to increase sales. to do that, a consumer promotion must in essence give the consumer an offer he/she cannot refuse. most key to the success of the consumer promotion is the latter. the offer must be attractive, otherwise it's a waste of valuable marketing budget. if you cannot give an offer the consumer cannot refuse - DO NOT RUN THE CONSUMER PROMOTION. spend your marketing funds elsewhere.

we will be writing the above every time we talk about consumer promotions. i am floored that we see promotions launched by companies like Shell who does not seem to get that most basic philosophy on consumer promotions.

if you have a vehicle, the gasoline station is a place you go to at least every 10 days if you gas up full tank or more often than that if you don't gas up full tank. i would think for most vehicles, if it's not a full tank, it will be at least P200.00. a full tank for small car like a honda civic is around P1,100.00. because you gas up very often, consumers are very price conscious.

most vehicle owners are aware of gas prices but may not be too aware of prices of lubricants for the simple reason that vehicle owners do not have an oil change often. we do that every 5,000 kilometers or maybe once a year to twice a year.

shell ran a price discount on their lubricants. they had fliers to promote it that they give each motorist who goes to their station to gas up. a price off at this time is a very smart thing to do. everyone is looking for ways to save money. getting an oil change is a necessity, just like filling up your car with gas, so a price off is a very attractive consumer promotion.

i usually gas up full tank at a time, that means the price point in my mind is P1,100.00 or there abouts. when in a hurry, i fill up P500.00. so, the price point in my mind when i entered that shell gas station was either P500.00 to P1,100.00.

after i gassed up, the gasoline boy together with my receipt and credit card, happily gave me not 1 but 2 fliers on their lubricant price off promo. when i got the flier, i wanted to kill the gasoline boy.

what the f%$#@! is this promo??? that was my reaction to the price off promo on shell lubricants! 5 freaking pesos off! was that supposed to excite me? how?

i just gassed up full tank, i paid P1,000.00 on the gasoline i just bought and they will give me an equivalent 0.5% discount? ok fine, i paid for gas and not a lubricant, but that is the price point in my mind at the time i received the flier.

i don't actually know what is the price of lubricants at shell, but i would say it would at least be P500.00. if that is the case - they are giving customers a whopping 1% discount? WTH is that?? why bother to give a discount when it is just 1% or 0.5% of the cost? how in the world can that encourage customers to avail of this price off promo?

P5.00 is the amount you give gasoline boys as tip when they put air in the tires of your cars. P5.00 is the amount you give to watch-your-car boys. in fact, i think i give too little as most people i know give watch-your-car boys P10.00 tips!

what made me even madder in this effort of theirs is that the gasoline boy gave me 2 fliers. the flier is half page bond paper size, glossy, thick paper, double side printing and full color - the cost of one flier must be P2.50 per piece. since they gave me 2 fliers - they just gave me P5.00 worth of fliers! the cost of the fliers they gave me is almost the cost of the price off.

of fine, i can be exaggerating - the flier cost is unlikely P2.50 per piece. haha. but seriously, it must cost at least P1.00 a piece. so they gave me P2.00 worth of value on a price off promo that that they are giving away at P5.00!

i cannot understand the logic of all of that!

first, why bother giving a price off when the price they are taking from my purchase price is worth nothing? definitely unattractive! why run this promo at all?

and to shoot their other foot, they spend so much money on fliers that is almost equivalent to the price value they are giving away! did they have to distribute fliers for this kind of promo? wouldn't a handwritten note do? or even cheap mimeographed printing? or some cheap photocopied flier? for heaven's sake, don't print fliers - just have a poster printed to show customers!

did they think distributing a nicely printed flier worth P1.00 per piece will encourage consumers to avail of a price off promo that will give consumers a P5.00 discount?

i cannot over-emphasize this - the Shell lubricants P5.00 Off promo is tHe idiOts proMo !

how much of a brilliant idea of a business model is Apple's App Store?

Apple's App Store: How Much Is It?


Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 18

According to iPhone apps tracker and reviewer 149Apps, you can own all 25,000 applications sold through Apple’s App Store for $71,442. If you think about it, that’s a staggeringly low number, which translates into an average of less than $3 per application (Actual per-application prices can be a lot higher, of course, since many of the games and e-books sold in the store are free). By contrast, it would take millions to buy everything on iTunes, with its millions of songs each currently priced at 99 cents. The higher average per-app price spells great revenue potential for the App Store.

Based on the App Store’s recent performane, the number of applications in the store now nearly doubles every two months (the store only had 15,000 applications in January). If that pace of growth continues, the store will have nearly 300,000 applications by year-end. Assuming the $3 average selling price holds, a consumer would have to spend $900,000 to buy up everything in sight.

The store’s revenue growth should balloon as well, though not at the same pace. App Store sales likely added up to $200 million in the December quarter, estimates Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co. If app downloads were to grow at the same pace as the store’s catalogue — 20 times in one year — App Store sales will have reached $4 billion in the calendar fourth quarter of 2009. The whole company’s revenue in the calendar fourth quarter of 2008 (fiscal first quarter for Apple) reached $10 billion. Clearly, that’s not going to happen: The downloads are tied to sales of iPhone and iPod touch devices, and those aren’t going to grow 20 times this year.

Still, as the number of applications to tempt users with increases, that should help grow overall App Store sales faster. If an average iPhone user downloads, say, 10 apps today, that person may download 15 of them by year-end, if there’s more intriguing content to choose from. Apple’s March 17 software upgrade should help increase the number of downloads per user. It will enable a number of cool new applications: You’ll be able to easily locate people nearby who are playing the same game, for instance. For the App Store, the future looks bright.

source: http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/03/apples_app_stor.html?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

wawam.wordpress featured in ABS-CBN's TV Patrol World news program

this is on the amiel alcantara story that has been featured in wawam.wordpress - abs-cbn ran a story on wawam.wordpress starting a signature campaign. we think it's a big thing that a philippine-based internet blog gets featured on a high rating news program aired nationwide.

go to wawam.wordpress here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/

Earth Hour : March 28, 2009, 8:30pm to 9:30pm

On March 28 you can VOTE EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour.
Or you can vote global warming by leaving your lights on.

The results of the election are being presented at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

We want one billion votes for Earth, to tell world leaders that we have to take action against global warming.

WAWAM! on The Manila Standard Today front page

this happened last year during the height of the atenista-burns-wood-with-names-of- la-salle-players-in-bonfire celebration last year at the ateneo after ateneo won the UAAP championship - WAWAM! blogspot was mentioned on the front page of The Manila Standard Today newspaper. (view pic of first page of the newspaper here: http://dynamic2.philonline.com/pdf_October_2008/pdf_oct6_2008.pdf)

we only found out this week when we googled the name "wawam". we wanted to get a google check on where "wawam" is being published around the net.

this was the article printed on the paper:

Ateneo apologizes to La Salle over bonfire



THE president of the Ateneo de Manila University has apologized to the De La Salle University community over photos that showed wooden planks with the names of La Salle’s basketball players, which were later burned in a bonfire on Sept. 30.

Ateneo alumnus and former Standard Today columnist Jesse Paredes, brother of musician Jim Paredes, admitted to “producing the materials with the names of the Green Archers and placing them prominently in the woodpile before the bonfire.”

Jesse, in his letter to Ateneo president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres dated Oct. 3, said he was apologizing for putting Nebres in a “queasy situation” because of the “backlash” created by what he did.


On Oct. 2, Nebres sent a letter to La Salle president Armin Luistro apologizing for the incident.


“Unfortunately, none of us saw it ahead of time, because the woodpile was covered by a tarp against the rain until the time came to light it,” Nebres wrote.


Several Internet blogs were busy the past few days with postings from people claiming to be students or alumnus or parents of students from La Salle and Ateneo condemning the incident, which apparently came to light only after photos were posted in cyberspace.


One of the photos showed the unlit woodpile with planks bearing the names of La Salle’s basketball players, and another showed a man placing the planks on the woodpile. Standard Today obtained the two photos posted by a Veepee Pinpin on the WAWAM! blog.


Most postings on the blog condemned the incident. One post said this was in response to the supposed La Salle cheer “Burn, Ateneo, burn.”


Ateneo won the seniors basketball championship of the 71st season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines games on Sept. 21, sweeping La Salle in two games of the finals for their fourth title.


The last time Ateneo won the championship was in 2002.

source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news2_oct6_2008

though our thank you is coming some months after the fact, we like to thank The Manila Standard Today for the exposure and publicity.

also visit wawam.wordpress here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/
go to 2010 presidentiables here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/

pErsPecTIve : the 21st (2009) Philipine Advertising Congress logo

we know what the word "perspectives" mean and the logo is very good in capturing what it means. however, it looks like the word "readability" was totally forgotten.

it is quite common - creatives fall in love with a creative concept but forgets an ad or in this case an image needs to be readable first. fail on readability for a logo or "understandability" for an ad and most likely everything else fails.

you need to strain your eyes and your brain to get to what the logo is all about. you get afreaid that logo designer forgot a letter or your eyes are failing you as you missed reading a letter. the tendency of the viewer is to first ask the question - are all the letters in there? is it spelled correctly?

the logo earns high marks on concept and on the cognitive part but it does not deliver very well on the creative part. for a logo for the whole ad industry and an ad congress which primarily celebrates creativity, this logo fails. it's a thinking creativity, not a creative creativity.

we find it too stiff, boxed in even while creativity and yes the ad congress itself is all about honoring those who have come up with ads that are thinking out of the box, free of constraints. this one put everything inside boxes, the exact opposite of what creativity means. creativity that is boxed in, 4 boxes to be exact, is not at all creative. did a client design this ad or an account servicing person?

did we take that literally? yes, we did. and so did the logo. ever heard of "boxed-in creativity"? we would rather not as that makes it un-creative.

the above comes frrom my perspective.

go to the ad congress website: http://www.adcon.com.ph/v2/

WAWAM! a fan of another blog, Pinoy Advertising Tsismax - not true but we are flattered

Pinoy Advertising Tsismax, a blog on philippine advertising, actually as the blog name says, it is a blog for tsimis or rumors on the philippine advertising industry. in one of the posts there, it mentioned that WAWAM! is a "fan" of the blog: http://advertizzzing.blogspot.com/2007/01/tsismax-trivia.html

we do not know what the point is of that post nor what that blog is trying to do, but WAWAM! is certainly not a fan of that blog, contrary to what the post claims.

we had posted in that blog a few times, sometime in july 2008 but only on one topic, that was when we picked up a story on the DM9 Jayme/Sayfu plagiarism of an ad that won them an international award. (read here: http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/DM9Jayme%2FSyfu) that was the first and only time we posted there and certainly also the first and last time we read anything in that blog.

we do not think reading and posting in that blog once in two years that this blog has been in existence constitutes being a "fan" of that blog. we categorically deny that we are a fan of the blog.

we ran into that blog today as we googled "wawam". we wanted a quick check on the name and wanted to find out if the wawam blog is being mentioned in other parts of the internet (also for copyright infringement checks). so today was only the second time ever that we went to that blog since last year. we were surprised that "wawam" was mentioned in the posts in that blog.

also, we saw some comments there that used "wawam" as a username. we are even more surprised by those postings in the comments section. those are impostors. we have not posted any comment in that blog other than those on the DM9 Jayme/Syfu plagiarism post. comments made on others topics claiming they came from wawam are not true and they did not come from us.

it's a strange thing to do - we don't know why people will want to use the "wawam" username to post in blogs. very freaky!

for the record - wawam does not intend to post or make a comment in that blog in the future. when and IF we do, we will also state it here in this blog. other "wawam" postings if not published here are impostors.

although not true, we are nevertheless flattered that Pinoy Advertising Tsismax , as they obviously found it important and useful, to drop the WAWAM name as a reader of their blog and a fan, even! we will allow that blog to think we are a fan for whatever self-serving purpose they may find in it.

but for the rest, we categorically say we are not a fan and we do not even read that blog.

why blame pamela anderson?

Brand Pamela Anderson is being attacked for wearing a vivian westwood creation, above. but i don't get it, anderson is a model, she did not create the clothes she wore in the fashion show, someone else did. it's famed vivian westwood who created the clothes anderson wore, westwood, the creator should be ridiculed and attacked for it, not the model.

mcdonald's "first love - huling el bimbo" tv spot works, gives mcdonald's a human heart and it is real

this ad works very well on many levels all at the same time. the ad completes mcdonald's ad campaign - they had the value meal campaign with the "wallet" tv spot, "burger, burger" for their thematic burger ads and this one is for their deserts.

it has a very interesting story and what makes it even better is that it has a very good twist to it. it is supposed to be a sad story, but you don't feel bad after the ad ends. in some strange way and it can be hard to explain, you feel good after seeing the ad.

the ad gives mcdonald's a very human heart and a real one. it's not just a restaurant where people go to eat, it is a place where stories about the lives of people are made. romance in a fast food restaurant? it probably happens in real life but in our dreams and expectations, romance happens in a french restaurant. hard to imagine that you will hear violins played in a fastfood joint like mcdo but in this one it did and we all smile after.

and that is where one of the appeals if this ad springs from.

puppy love or your first love is always a good subject to talk about. "the one that got away" is one other story everyone has. but combining both the way that this mcdonald ad did makes magic.

the stroke of genius in this ad for the brand is making the mcdonald's desert of fries and ice cream sundae as the fulcrum, the star of the story. dipping the fries on the ice cream sundae was the spark of the beginning of the first love story and the same thing was the reminder that this girl of years ago is now the woman that got away. it is a good romance story when we see one that does not use the often used, touch of the hand, or smile or first kiss, this one is the action of dipping fries on the ice cream sundae.

there is a twin to that stroke of genius and it lies on the same element of dipping fries into the sundae. eating fries laced with ice cream sundae may seem gross to many, but those who practice it swear it is gourmet food at its best. it is a practice specially among the young and kids, it's just they have kept it a secret to the rest of us.

now, that strategy visual, that consumer habit, the best kept secret of gourmet food enjoyment in a fastfood chain is formally owned by mcdonald's. we are sure that after they aired this ad. many of the uncoverted tried it and most probably got converted. for sure a large portion of kids tried it.

that is what advertising is marketing is about - ads that make more people use more of the brand's products. now, more people will not just order only fries or just ice cream sundae, they need to order both.

putting it in this ad makes this ad resonate. people will empathize with it. they will find relevance and meaning. it is an excellent consumer insight. how the creative director strung that together is a stroke of genius. now, that's the third time i said that.





more on this ad on the next post.

youtube : today's most eloquent definer of Brand Equity. hello, is that you christian bale?

nobody is exempt from this, but it is most specially true for celebrities - youtube has become the now definer of Brand Equity. celebrities become celebrities for the brand that they have built over their careers but that can be changed in 3 minutes when something about the celebrity gets posted in youtube.

ordinary mortals like us surf youtube for the most current, most entertaining and the interesting, it's what you do when you still have internet time and you are done with the usual internet chores of reading emails and blogs. many have also made it what they do on the internet. and googling the name of the celebrity you want to ogle on can take you to a youtube posting of your favorite celebrity.

often times, we see on traditional media, from the press and tv, telling us of the latest youtube helping of celebrities.

youtube is a visual medium but this one is just audio but equally effective in rebuilding or the destruction of a brand of a celebrity.

it's interesting - youtube are unforgiving for celebrities, bringing destruction of the brand but for ordinary mortals it has become as the brand building. we have heard of ordinary mortals shooting up to fame, becoming celebrities because of their youtube fame.

brand building this century has become more complicated and it's builders numerous. it is the world of the internet and youtube is one of those at the forefront.

"Fly High, Amiel!" - 4-manobo boys release blue & white balloons for amiel alcantara

on february 24, the life of 10 year old amiel alcantara, a grade 4 student at the ateneo de manila grade school was taken in a freak accident at the parking lot inside the school. a van, driven by an ateneo mom pinned amiel to the back of an SUV and he died shortly after.


amiel was laid to rest last saturday, february 28. the picture above show amiel’s classmates from 4-manobo releasing blue & white balloons into the heavens as the hearse (see headlight, lower left hand corner) carrying amiel’s body leaves the grade school campus. printed on the balloons are the words “Fly High, Amiel” and attached to each one are messages written by the manobo boys.

read more about it here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/