Fan-crafted Pre commercial bests Palm with sheer simplicity 83
by Derek Kessler
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 5:26 pm EDT
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 5:26 pm EDT 
Arno Arni on Vimeo has put together a fantastic video that shows off Palm’s webOS multi-tasking in a beautiful way. It’s simple and straightforward in a way that no Palm ad to this point has been. In thirty seconds we get to see Messaging, Facebook, Memos, Calendar, and more, all set to a fun catchy Apple-commercial-esque tune. Not to mention we get to see a “real world” scenario where this kind of stuff is actually used. Check it out after the break, oh, and HP, take note: this is the kind of stuff we like.
Source: Vimeo (mobile version); Thanks to rgloor for the tip!
83 Comments
I think I might have teared up a little bit when they held hands.
Awww, loved it. Exactly the kind of commercials we need.
Good one. palm should use this
NICE! Double rainbow all the way.
oo0oo0o0o its almost a triple rainbow!!1
sigh, can't view the video on my pre...
same here, oh the irony...
I'm not one to complain about flash support but this is pretty funny
sigh...i hate irony sometimes...
anyone have a youtube link so I can view this on my pre? Lol
Click on the source link guys (and gals). Vimeo supports HTML5. It will take you right to it. ;)
-BeeRad
It's working now, but I can totes vouch it was not working earlier and there was a slash throug it. Maybe there's a conversion process?
Thanks for he tip! I was only trying the embedded.
Awesome video viewed from my Evo right from the browser using flash.
Hey PALM .. watch and LEARN..
Oh my I wish they would have done something like that. SHOWING what your phone can do.
GREAT Job. LOVE it.
haha double rainbow.. ;-) nice
I think it is based on the 'Live move fast, don't miss a thing' commercial like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl31hwu_Ihg&feature=PlayList&p=FC592756B3...
It is my personal fav and it's also the start of the change in marketing.
Very, very impressive. HP/Palm should freakin' buy this from him and run it.
Brilliant. If the people who produced Palm's ads actually used the phones, they would make commercials like that.
Exactly. Can pretty much guarantee that the company they used did not use the phone, or only glancingly played with it a day and went from there.
There's no way they were fans of the phone or they would have shown off its unique abilities.
If that's the case, then Palm must not have watched the ads before okaying them. I'm sure Palm went to them with ideas, the ad company ran with them, Palm okayed them, the ads were aired, no one bought the phones, and then Palm said "oh shit, those sucked, no wonder we're not selling any phones." At least they attempted to fix them with the most recent Verizon ads (not the mom ones), which still fell flat.
The ad company didn't get paid to be fans of the phone, they got paid to make an ad. Palm should have told them what to focus on and highlight. If they did and the ad company still screwed the pooch, then disregard this post.
Ok, THAT was awesome.
What's the food app he uses at the end?
SWEET! Maybe if something like this was done from the begining the launch wouldnt have been considered a flopp....
Says "Mr. Chef for Palm"
I think he made it up for the ad.
he probably just opened the pic app and started sliding the pics
It's just an app we quickly built with Ares just for the commercial. nothing fancy and with limited functionality
Agreed, all around. That's, by far, the best ad I've seen for webOS, bar none--homebrew or professional. I'd love to see a series of similarly-themed ads playing on various webOS strengths--could show Synergy, notifications, etc. Simple, human, meaningful. Then, spend $100 million or so blasting them everywhere in preparation for the next devices and webOS 2.0.
Maybe have him pick up the phone on a TouchStone at the beginning. Then maybe a the end. Too much? I hate to ruin it but I think TouchStone shows a great feature most people don't know about.
I agree. Have someone pick it up off the touchstone heading out the door to work, show off the multitasking, a la this commercial, and then come back home and drop it back on the touchstone as you sit down to watch TV or whatever. The Touchstone is a great feature that should be highlighted.
I loved it too. I was also looking for the phone app too. I was expecting the phone to ring and then the person picking it up, possible off a touchstone charger.
Love it. Best ad I've seen by far.
Much better than the Borg Queen ads.
This is bizarre. I was listening to Home (by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes) on Grooveshark when I came here and started reading the article. I put the music on pause, then clicked play on the vimeo video, and what do you know? Haha, I thought that Grooveshark had started up again on its own! Great commercial.
Excellent. We need these types of ads for the next Palm smartphone device! Well done to the author of the video! :)
I fully support this service and/or product.
I mean, I loved this commercial. :D Way to pack a lot of real information into 30 seconds.
I like it! 100% better than anything Palm came up with for the Pre. My only criticism would be that the apps showcased don't really emphasize the multitasking of the phone. It looks more like a form of task swapping, like iOS 3 did. Of course, that's only a small gripe. This video is just as effective as the newer ads that Palm is running (with the people walking down the street, manipulating cards in the air in front of them).
Great video but you can still see the lag in the sub-par hardware!
Very Nice!
Anyone catch the content of the top pink memo @:09 mark? :)
lol video was shot and edited on iphone 4
you know what: this video is so good, it makes me want a palm all over again...
Someone hire this guy!!
I can't see it on the pre either and want to see it. Is it on utube yet. I couldn't find it
I can't see it on the pre either and want to see it. Is it on utube yet. I couldn't find it
This is just awesome!
they should roll with this in the future for commercials... keep it simple
Palm commercials have been weak at best, but remember that HP has quite the marketing team and can put as much or as little as they want into a product.
This You tube video is 10 times better with no flashy special effects and shows the Pre being used for real. And has a catchy tune. "I Like Birds" :)
Damn I wish I could watch it on my Pre. Someone said it was HTML5 but the all I see is an image from the video and a circle with a slash through it. Looking forward to checking it out later.
Follow the Mobile Version link at the bottom of the paragraph.
We did. It doesn't work. There's a circle with a slash through it. Poor Pre...:(
Damn I wish I could watch it on my Pre. Someone said it was HTML5 but the all I see is an image from the video and a circle with a slash through it. Looking forward to checking it out later.
Does that sticky note say "BIATCH!"? It looks like it does. Maybe it's just me. :D
yeas it does :D we were in quite a hurry that day and it was the first thing that came to my mind...
that shit was gangsta.
Sweet!
tried the mobile link and nothing but the circle w/ the slash
Nice, but from a marketing perspective, I think that most people wouldn't remember the name of the product/company. The word "Palm" just pops up for about half a second right at the end.
Simple and probably the best commercial I've seen yet - get that guy to HP now!
I guess I'm the only one who actually liked creepy palm girl ads, but this is good too.
The commercial is awesome. His other Pre video is great too. One could say he really loves his Pre as he spent three hours replacing a cracked touch screen. I love the Pre too but don't think I would have the patience for three hours to fix it. Watch his other video on his site, go to: http://vimeo.com/13430112
Now I can see why I can't get Sprint to fix my "Oreo" effect. They don't have anyone nearly as talented as this guy working there.
What?
A commercial that actually shows the features and gives a real sense of the UI?
That's crazy.
Forgot to include "too many cards."
That's Funny!! But I agree!!
I see everyone likes this video, BUT, this is NOT a unique idea. Palm has had a video with the same music, and displaying almost the same amount of apps. Do your homework. I have this video posted in our Facebook Group called "The App Idea Box Family". Check it out!! I think a couple of the videos in The PalmSpot Contest were better!
Wonderful commercial! Love it! Had stuff like this run over a year ago, I bet Palm's present would have been different.
that was amazing. Palm, hire this guy or at least buy his concept.
Not bad, though it doesn't really play up much to the more masculine crowd. Next one has to have that Pre on a touchstone, earphones plugged in, Pandora playing, and a phone call come in. Maybe a text message. And he ignores it and keeps listening to his Motorhead station. Maybe pulls the keyboard down and universal searches for the News app, checks the feeds, maybe universal searches again for a phone number. Maybe...here's a thought...try some music that isn't like Apple music. It's okay to be different if it turns heads and makes Apple seem kinda stale and corny (which it is very much).
Sounds good, but remember, it's a 30 sec. commercial! I don't think there will be enough time for All That!!
Somehow they have to get alerts in the commercials. webOS Alerts are the best and from what I've heard about iOSs I think they'd inspire some envy.
I don't get the obsession with fan-made Palm commercials.
This isn't nearly as good as the real Palm spot that uses the same music.
I agree.
Perhaps not in the technical or production sense but just the fact that it just how easy is to reschedule a calendar appointment and how simple apps actually work together I think conveys the message much more effective than the good looking Palm ads.
Arno did a great job with this commercial because it comes from the heart without the artsy-fartsy/edginess that comes with an ad made by someone like CPB (Burger King ads). The problem is that it is too much like an iPhone commercial from Apple, and most people will relate it as a "me too" ad. Take a look at some of HP's "Imagine" pieces and weave those themes into the ad and you will have a great spot that HP should take a serious look at. Moving forward HP should make a series of spots that show the virtues of WebOS for different personal and business users merging work and lifestyle. Arno is on to a good concept that just needs a little refinement. I bookmarked the ad to show to all of the iPhone fan boys I know.
That's a big improvement from the creepy pale lady.
Well done!
that must have taken quite awhile to make
wow I didn't expect our video to show up here on precentral...
thanks for all the nice comments, you guys are great!
I have the original sprint pre and i never get the too many cards anymore, not since the early days of webos before all the updates.
Saw the vid finally...well done. I would suggest everyone to go to the the app store and dload the palmspot video app (free)..some good vids there too.( as well as some whack ones)....enjoy
That is a great video!! Thanks for showing the reason for the Communities' enthusiasm for WebOS and Palm!!
Better than creepy lady. but as much as I like using my Palm Pre compared to my wife's Android brick, just watching the video doesn't tell you anything about what the Pre is doing, unless you already know. (I watched it twice). So it may be a nice reminder to Pre owners, but wouldn't answer the who-what-where-when-why of communicating a message.
Still, it beats the scary chick!
on related note above - unless I reboot my Sprint Pre at least once a week, I get 'too many cards' message still. BUT my wife's Android (2.1) gets similar message. When I called US Cellular to try to unfreeze it, the tech lady said to pull the battery out at least once a week, "because that happens to all smartphones"! At least I only have to power off and on, although to be fair, the Android phone only needs to power off and on, too, I found out by experimenting.
I'll take my Pre with it's polite message to the freezing Android brick any day!
WOW! Finally, someone did a commercial just like Apple does. Palm, it's ok to copy the format, it works, just do it, just simply show the phone and what it does! Don't show weird people or people tapping things in thin air, just show the dang phone and what it can do!!! It's an awesome phone!!!
It is nice but there were other ads like that before. Here is another fanmade ad that even won the palmwebos-ad-contest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc0REHGnmLA&videos=uAA3yVIEpfU
and those one are the new ads made by palm themselves (unfortunately you can't see them in television):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcbDnaz6P0Q&videos=lIAXkGf-mis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ELLD1tUQ44&videos=lIAXkGf-mis
in the second ad you can here the music of the fanmade ad
and by the way....O2 Germany pushed the pre with such selfmade ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3D_lDtCROU&feature=channel
WOW, first time I've seen those German ads... really good (even if I couldn't understand most of the talking), no wonder Palm did so well in Germany compared to other European country's.
Brilliant Ad !!!!
I want to buy another Pre !
Usb cable on desk is a nice touch !
Yeah I choked tooat the hand bit !
AWESOME !
Palm thats an AD..... could've saved you Millions !