HP and Palm try new slogan: 'Faster, smarter, and tons of fun' 101
Finally, Palm seems to have gotten the message loud and clear. The message: A great smartphone and great OS need an equally great marketing slogan. Dare we say the latest slogan from Palm and HP is also the greatest in the annals of webOS marketing history?
We do say the latest is the greatest and here it is:
Say no more. We agree, and thank you Palm for finally listening. Thank you for thinking before opening your wallet and, above all, thank you for leaving mom and the “creepy lady” out of the equation (no offense mom). If we can add just one more thing; HP and Palm, this one is a winner. We hope to see this newest slogan not just on your website but eventually everywhere.
In case you’ve forgotten or tried to forget, here’s a recap of Palm’s marketing missteps:
Original Palm “wouldn’t that be amazing” campaign introducing the Pre. "Amazingly" the Pre was turned off during the entire spot.
Palm “Flow” campaign (aka “creepy lady ads”).
The infinitely worse and equally infamous Verizon “Smart enough for mom” campaign.
These missteps and the subsequent criticism from all sides led Palm to wisely and finally come up with a slogan that made some sense:
Let’s hope that the new “Faster, smarter and tons of fun” marketing campaign helps take Palm and webOS 2.0 to the masses where all things great belong.
Source: Palm.com
101 Comments
Great slogan. Now let's see some great phones on a variety of carriers to go with it. This has been a long dry spell for Palm, but there seem to be rain clouds on the horizon.
Interesting way to use "rain clouds on the horizon" positively; it's usually used as a negative... I like it! (More than the slogan, which I don't like as a matter of fact. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue...)
To respond to some of the other comments in the thread, until Palm has multiple models to offer that are clearly distinguished from each other, the best it can do is create a pretty generic slogan. As the new models roll out, they can fine tune the slogan for gamers, business, students, and even moms. The main thing about a slogan is that Palm and HP pour lots of money and advertising behind it and the product. What we ultimately want is for people to say, "that's a cool phone" even if the slogan is a little generic.
(edit - this reply was meant for the 4th comment below about bumper cars)
I think that's actually an AT&T commercial about their Torch and not just a BB commercial campaign.
"Life moves faster, smarter and is tons of fun - Don
i like the slogan. From what i have seen from the latest videos webos is fast and quick action, just type is a smart addition to webos and alot of 3D games are appearing in the app catalogue so in my opinion hp palm are living upto the slogan. I just hope all of that is mentioned in the new webos ads. All they need is some kick ass hardware just to shut the critics up and to satisfy us webos fans.
Screw all of this advertising stuff. HPalm should just buy Google outright and make the next big Android update WebOS 2.0!
I agree with Mikey. Perhaps, "Faster & Smarter - Work or Play"
i like the slogan. From what i have seen from the latest videos webos is fast and quick action, just type is a smart addition to webos and alot of 3D games are appearing in the app catalogue so in my opinion hp palm are living upto the slogan. I just hope all of that is mentioned in the new webos ads. All they need is some kick ass hardware just to shut the critics up and to satisfy us webos fans.
The thing is, you can't shut up critics (or trolls). Palm could drop 5 form factors tomorrow featuring dual 1 ghz processors 1gb Ram, 128gb storage, dual front and back cameras, double the screen resolution of the retina display and all for price points that would make your eyes pop out and need to change your pants and there would STILL be a vocal group of critics and trolls finding stuff to bitch about.
I HIGHLY doubt that!
Want to bet? :) We could start with the complaints that the hardware doesn't matter, the app store is 90% crap. Then there'd be complaints about lack of widgets. People complaining if their carrier didn't get the phones. People saying 'too little, too late I've already switched to the Evo'. People complaining it should have expandable memory instead of built in. Others would complain that if they hadn't gone overboard with the hardware it would have been more affordable. There would be complaints about lack of iTunes sync and I'm sure plenty of folks would complain about the individual form factors. If they were touchstone compatible some would complain about the lack of a compass. If it had a compass there'd be complaints about lack of touchstone compatibility. Some people would complain about build quality, not because they're not well built but because they're not built well enough to be abused and mishandled by ham-handed oafs. There'd be complaints that a full version of Quick Office wasn't included and if there was there would be others who would complain that QO isn't exactly like MS Office. No matter how long the battery lasts, there would be complaints that it doesn't last longer.
Critics and trolls will never stop being critics and trolls.
i would just like to throw out there... i dont understand y people need itunes sink. i much rather just drag and drop mp3s. people who need itunes sink must not know how to use windows. jeezz
I completely agree. I don't think iTunes is even that good of a media player, I prefer Windows Media Player. To each their own as far as preferences go but yes, the syncing issue is completely stupid. That doesn't stop people from complaining about it though.
Agreed. WMP is a thousand times better than iTunes. More organized, more useful. Can sync with anything that shows up as a hard drive. Not trying to be a hundred things at once. Yeah, I said it.
It doesn't have to be iTunes, but *some* sync capability is useful so as hopefully not to have "yet another music silo to manage/curate". While you may enjoy the drag and drop experience to your Pre, and even *from* your Pre should you actually buy anything from Amazon that you want in your desktop library ('cause Amazon's MP3 store seems only to allow downloading once), that whole subtask of managing what's on my phone vs. my desktop file-store at home is a lot of mucking around with stuff I don't care about; I don't want to "manage my Pre's music content", I don't want to "manage my music", I want my music to be available to me wherever I am, whenever I want it.
Short of that, if I could just manage it once, e.g., create a playlist once (say, "tunes on the go, short version"), and have that dependably update to everything relevant (say, my phone and my iPod), that'd be a grudgingly adequate fall-back. And I think that's what iTunes is for a lot of people.
The wherever-whenever thing is the appeal of a cloud infrastructure that will hopefully allow me to stream/dl whatever song or playlist I want from my library. See? It doesn't have to be iTunes...but if it can't be the magic cloud-thingy, better it be something that I already use and provides *some* if not all of the functionality I want.
Amen.
And critics of critics are so much better?
You're right, there will always be people who want things to be better, faster, cheaper -- there is no need to respond. This is a discussion forum, people will point out pros, cons, and there will always be trolls.
I, for one, don't like the slogan because I think it negates a crucial audience that Palm needs for success -- business. I am sure they included this part of the slogan because of the great 3D games that are available and that, behind the iPhone, it is the best mobile gaming platform.
I love my Pre minus. I am not going to whine and moan like some on Sprint about no love for webOS (although I will never complain about their moaning, I think it is justified).
I will keep my Pre minus until it does not work for me any more. And frankly, I think that time is coming very quickly as the company I work for will most likely be announcing support for Android (in addition to the current support of BlackBerry and iPhone). webOS isn't even on their radar for support. Personally I don't want a BlackBerry or iPhone, but I can live with Android if I need to in order get access.
I love my Pre Plus. It gets the job done. I do both my personal and business emails on it, I use it for entertainment, I can take decent pictures with it, I can maintain my social networking with it, and I can even use it as a phone! I am sure that when HP starts marketing to the business community, they will have a slogan for that. In the mean time this slogan fits the current Palm Pre 2 market that they are trying to reach.
Like you, I don
Can you please explain your touchstone vs compass argument? Since the magnet is in the touchstone, the compass would only not work when it's on the touchstone...?
Also, not to be a stickler, but the OP kept leaving off the last comma. it's "Faster, smarter, and tons of fun."
Sitting on the touchstone will screw up the compass. I'm also fairly certain (but not 100% positive) that there is a small magnet in the touchstone back cover. That's how it orients itself on the touchstone.
I love an Oxford comma...
There are 4 small pieces of metal in the touchstone charger cover (not magnets) these are what the phone uses to align itself to the 4 magnets in the touchstone. The only magnet in the phone is in the speaker and most phones with compasses also have speakers. The compass is just an omission from the original design of a very compact smartphone. It is technically feasible to have a compass in a phone that uses an inductive charger.
Oh, and because I'm feeling bratty today...
...only 1GHz and only 512Kb?! That's just table stakes these days...just one phone among a whole herd of phones that are coming out now and in the past few months that have those same numbers.
Why doesn't Palm use the more powerful processors that aren't available yet?!
:-)
You forgot to list that one in your anticipated criticisms and troll-isms.
Great one...good slogan...HP Palm now not aiming business level users??Tons of fun means???Hp Palm cooperate with tons of game developers at the backstage or they already persuade EA,Gamaloft,Zynga&etc....stay tuned...Keep it up HP Palm...awesome OS ever.
HP's Enterprise connections will handle the business end, this slogan is targeted more at the general consumer, which is the market with the most growth potential.
nice.....the future is right in the Palm of your hand.....
that would work too....i just want my pre 2...i feel like a kid in a candy store....hope for many more HP Palm tech using the great WebOs soon...
Agree that both this slogan and the last once wasn't bad.
What Palm needs though is a big spend to create awareness.
Remember, that was how Android became a household name - "100 million from Verizon".
Here's hoping that HP is willing to spend at least half of that to create awareness.
Sorry, how UNORIGINAL. They are second place even in this!! Anyone seen RIM's BlackBerry commercial with roller coaster's, bumper cars, etc?
Yeah, real original HPalm.
How is this going to translate to business? I can see someone sitting at IBM saying, hey, let's make webOS our next platform after BlackBerry to access our corporate infrastructure -- just look here at the new slogan -- it's "tons of fun"!!
Sorry, but I am calling Fail. (EDIT: ok, let me amend that to a 1/3 fail, because it does appear to be faster and smarter).
Agreed. Just because we have a rock bottom starting point when it comes to advertising campaigns doesn't mean that any slogan should be seen as a win. This is completely vanilla, and the "tons of fun" phrase is just ridiculous. Just my opinion, but "Life moves fast. Don't miss a thing" is much better than this. The new slogan just bores me.
"Palm Pre 2. You'll like it. Just trust us on this one."
Slogan done.
the problem with the old slogan was that it was factually indefensible. All it did was draw attention to crappy calendar...
they should have gone with something that they could say with a straight face. How about: "Glass screen and headphone jack that works most of the time"
I don't like the new slogan so much. It sounds very generic.
Can we get phones faster! Geez
It makes the Pre sound like a lightweight. Tons of fun smells of compromise. Would you by a laptop that advertised itself as tons of fun?
Now HP Palm need to get the slogan and all things webOS ont the airwaves and in print not just on their website. And release some jaw smashing hardware to go with webOS 2.0.
Well I defenitely agree with the "tons of fun" part. I'm over here, yes I'm going to say it, stuck with an EVO because my Palm Pre died on me and sprint didn't want to acknowledge my warranty and I miss webOS. It really was fun to use. Android is just so boring and is so much more complicated to do the little things. I used to have fun just navigating through webOS!!!
To really drive it home, they should add on: ...with the Palm Pre 2 now available on Sprint.
I cant wait to start seeing the TV ads.
Maybe they should bring back this guy for the holidays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQw_--H3foI
good slogan! Now lets see some devices to go along with it
Did anyone notice the new HTC G2 "CEO Mom" ad? Same concept as the Verizon Pre one.
http://www.htc.com/us/products/t-mobile-g2
saw that last night,but at least they marketed it as more of a afterthought than a full on target market.
When are the phones comming to the UK ????
I have to agree that I'm not a fan either. How many businesses want their employees to use the phone for FUN. They want to use them for business!
How about "Family, Work, Play... Life Simplified."
or 'Life in Sync', of 'Life Synergy'.
OK but what about a: bigger screen, better resolution, more storage with MicroSD, better keyboard, more compass and more countries??? I live in Europe and I still can't buy a webOS phone!!!
HPalm, what are you waiting for to give us the specs above???
Seriously. Enough.
I'm sorry for you if you don't accept the truth. After one year and a half we are still here with almost the same hardware sold in only 7-8 countries in the world.
Uh huh. I know. I've had my pre since launch, so believe me, I know. I've heard everyone complaining about it, so I know. I see the post and the threads started every minute about it, so I know.
So, seriously. Enough.
"This is the fastest your Palm has ever moved...."
well, then again, that slogan may be relative for some people. :-)
LOL!
Supertroopers, anyone?
"Faster, Smarter, & tons of fun" can not be with out the "with HP webOS 2.0" part. Sprint's hardware can't really be described as 'tons of fun' in my opinion..
"Faster & Smarter - only you'll have to patch it if you're on Sprint"
there must be a Daft Punk fan on their marketing team... i wonder if any of the nerds on this site will understand that haha
Faster (cuz the origional is slooooow stock), smarter (as in it is getting OS functionality it should of had?), tons of fun (it has great games but a form factor not very good for gaming IMHO)... i dont think they should use this slogan becuase it sounds like they are trying to confince us that they made up for what the pre origionally lacked... i have a pre, love it, and will b buying one the hpalm phones they come out with in feb/march so dont get me wrong here. but they need something more clever than that. come on now im sure they paid some people some good money to come up with that. pffft plz.
I would just like to address your "i dont think they should use this slogan becuase it sounds like they are trying to confince us that they made up for what the pre origionally lacked..." comment.
I think you are right, but I also think you have to say that this is smart if it's true. They are going after marketshare. Frankly, their slogan could be "We don't suck that much anymore" and most of the people here would still be lining up for the next set of devices.
They are going after the audience that either 1) chose not to get a Pre originally because of the issues, or (more likely) 2) never heard of webOS/Pre or never seriously considered it.
So, in that sense, I think it is good. I just wish they included some kind of bone for business users.
your comment pretty much says what i didnt say here but what i also thought on this issue. these days i think its implied that phones are geared to business users. what does the business user reallllly need/ want out of a phone? email, doc viewing/ editing, qwerty kb, full html... 2.0 has allll that and those things are like standards now and are almost implied that the phone will have it if its a true smart phone. these days they gotta advertise the bells and whistles. why they arnt talking about flash support is BEYOND me. that should b written ALL over every advertisement they have for this thing. wtf are they doing over there?!
I was in the "tried to forget" group... Thanks for the reminder. I just shuddered a little when I thought of that creepy lady.
I really can't wait until the real next-gen phone is released. Based on the reviews the Pre2 with WebOS 2.0 is getting, some real screaming hardware is really what we need to get a shot in the arm for this platform.
What are you talking about?! That's a horrible slogan! Besides this looks more like placeholder descriptive text while they're coming up with the actual campaign slogan.
It's a good point you make, but slogans need to be memorable. This one is so bland it's turning me off and I KNOW how good this phone is.
haha its a "placeholder"... good one, i like that.
HPalm introduces, The Palm Pre2 - Placeholder.
Much better fit there. :)
Totally agree, this slogan is just plain stupid, is that the best they could come up with?
They needed something more convincing and as you said, memorable, kind of like the iphone
their strat is probably that of showing ads that are catchy and interesting then show ads that show off the phones functionality. this way they kind of leave you hangin at first creating interest then they come out of nowhere and fill that void they left
Such a fail that they still didnt update the dutch version of Palm.com..
It still has a "coming soon" sign about the original Pre and the "all new Treo Pro" and the copyright is now in German (about being a subsidairy of HP).
I actually allready moved on half a year ago.. But I still hope that now, finally, the Pre 2 will launch here aswell!
They have a huge potential userbase here if you ask me..
By the way, why haven't we seen the french ads of the Pre 2?
plus rapide, plus
I meant the TV commercials.
what's with all the flowers on the phone. seems like every time the pre is shown in a ad it's featuring flowers. how about a wallpaper a little gender neutral.
palms marketing SUXXXXX. i think a collection of people here on P/C can do a better job... we should just start a forum called Palm Marketing and just brainstorm and throw them a few ideas. im sure what we can come up with in an hour will b better than anything they came up with in the past 2 yrs.
completely agree. wallpaper is one of the first things you have to "fix" when you get a Pre (minus, plus, 2, yada yada yada).
Tons of fun isnt that the fat girl down the street that does stuff but you would never take home or tell your friends about
Honestly, I like the Pre's original message for it's name (that it will think of things before you do). The problem is that they never completely lived up to that hype. But if they could, then that would be something! I love roger mcnamee's vision that our phones would know if we were moving at a quick enough rate to make our next appointment and let us know if we weren't. Also, to let the other people in the meeting know that we were running late. How cool would that be? Right now I'd be happy with some decent hardware & a decent spellcheck!
This is their marketing for the Pre 2? We are SOOOOOO DOOOMED!!! LOL!!!
I would like 'Everything in your palm' or 'Everything fits in your palm' to keep Palm at least in the slogan.
"tons of fun"...sounds like a plus size hooker
"tons of fun"...sounds like a plus-size hooker
best comment ever
they should have described the phone, not what it is compared to the older modle. they should have used words like elegant, slick, smooth, intuitive... you know, what the phone IS.
Smarter? Smarter then what?
a rock: yes.
treo 600: nooooooooooo
I don't like it...
it needs to be short, like droid does, or steve jobs says...
longer is bad...
how about: 'dude, I'm getting a palm!!!'
or 'palm phones...daaaaaaang!'
Hey P|C, why don't you start a Poll/Contest where we can all give our own slogans.
Just like you did with the next Pre mock-up. We'll all vote on what you think are the top 10.
I don't think this one needs a prize though, just something for HPalm to see and take notice of.
"The all new Palm Pre 2... if you'd like one, move to France."
"The Palm Pre2, everything you thought the first one was going to be"
"The Palm Pre2 - because the first Pre was Number 2"
OK. How about;
Faster, Smarter, Funner.
The only thing I'd wish for is for people to please, for the love of everything sane and good in the world, STOP using the bewilderingly goofball term "HPalm". Please. Stop it. It's totally ridiculously wrong.
That said, the new motto works a whole lot better. Why? Because you commenters are dorks. People like fun things. Cute robots. Happy people taking photos. NO one cares about whether they "miss something". That slogan was a passive aggressive fear campaign that just makes you feel uneasy. People want fun, not to be reminded of "responsibilities". They want to see promos featuring music players and Angry Birds, not Calandar apps and slick app transitions. Too many mobile dorks really are hung up on organizers, but the reason why iPhones and Android clones caught on is because they used fun advertising that made people shirk their budgets and splurge on a "more fun" phone. The biggest travesty with Palm's advertising is that they focused on layered calendars and notifications when they should have been showing people having fun listening to Pandora and watching movies on YouTube. My friends are still shocked when I show them that yes, my phone plays stuff off Youtube and does Facebook.
Although I very well may be in the minority, I really like the 'Simply Amazing' advertisement and slogan, Flow is actually ok, and Life Moves Fast Don't Miss A Thing is fantastic. The new one though is far too generic and not even the slightest bit original, but perhaps this new approach may work with the mass market?
I'm faster, I'm smarter, and gosh darn it, people just like me.
'Faster, smarter, and tons of fun'
All I can say is ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
a day late and a dollar short. That's a great slogan for the commercial which AT&T and Blackberry teamed up for, which would have been the perfect pre commercial.
C'mom HP you pay 1.2 billion dollars for a PALM, give it the respect of advertising that is original as they are.
I pray everyday that Palm & HP will pull through and blow everyones socks off... They have what it takes .. They have to take it..run with it. & Never Look Back at the compitition... They have to break everyone brainwashed iphone minds & get back on top of the smartphone market..
"Smarter, faster, and tons of boring" There, that will get the business demographic. Happy now?
I wonder if it has occurred to any of the complainers here that HP might have a slightly better idea of how to market and sell tech devices than they do. I hear they've had some success as a company.
Faster, Smarter, and Great for your business.
Faster, Smarter, Great for Gaming.
Faster, Sm.........
You get the picture. HP Palm could always change the ending to match which target audience they are aiming for. I like it. Cause it could be true in the future IF they do what they need to do on the next devices.
How about "faster, smarter, funner. Yeah, we added funner to the dictionary"
i just dont feel it.... but maybe i would like to see what kind of commercial they come up with with this slogan.
Are you kidding me? How is this slogan going to get anyone to notice more than the previous one?
The more I step back and look at this from a consumer standpoint, the less in touch with me HP/PALM is becoming.
Partial hardware upgrades, no hammering advertising, no confirmations on anything until the last second, and now a slogan and logo change? I really am not seeing how this will win anyone new over to webOS period.
Then again I'm not a 14 year old so maybe that is who they are pitching this too.
I like the new slogan, too.
When reading it, I had the idea to take a look on the german HP website (I'm from germany) to find out, how the Palm Pre is presented there. I was surprised to find...nothing! Although the device is - or better: was - sold in germany, it's not to find on the new owner's site. Concerning the big market in germany, I don't understand that.
many of the actions this company is taking right now we dont understand. perhaps they will surprise us and do something right
I still think they should have the Dos Equis beer guy holding a Palm Pre saying :"this phone's got Webos (sounds like huevos)" or something along those lines, I thought about that the second they announced the Web Os name.
Brilliant!
This is a good advertisement and to this point I give HP alot of credit. I keep thinking about it and I am really disappointed but I might just have to let the Palm Pre go. The idea of having such a compact device able to do so many applications is neat but to this point they have almost ruined the idea. The neat objects of the device would be file transfer, a full featured good maps and voice navigation, voice dialing, and possibly one day, video conferencing.
With a ton of useless gray scale applications at this point the games are getting older and beaten. The applications are non-improving in terms of design and features. I just don't believe palm understand the expectations of the market at this point. Palm users aren't asking for nearly as much the apple devices or android but we are asking for most major applications with WebOS development. I saw resume builder the other day. Its a tiny book one input about 1 paragraph of unformatted information on each page. It is sad when there aren't enough good applications that these go noticed. Who is building these trinket applications? We want you to stop! Your adding false statistics. With over 10,000 applications.... To me there are less than 10 at this point and with Tweet gone even less. How can you not have a twitter app? How can there be an advertisement of facebook chat with no release for the past 6 months. (do not ask where this is, go to the website scroll down under applications you will see it pictured on your left along with 5-10 other applications that do not exist the market. With such a small phone font size has to be in the preferences. Either the United Arab Emirate people have a sweet Palm device or this is nearly illegal. Does anyone remember the confused Arabs in the nineties. Yeah I'm pretty sure the joke is on us at this point, soon they will have us confused Americans not knowing their left from the right. I don't know who or what it is, but I'm willing to work for free along anyones side to get these matters right.
I guess this would be a good time for a plug, visit my website www.wix.com/ncristella/decisivedecisionsmarketingllc
Give me some tools and accessibility and I'm sure we will all agree to work for an achievement without earnings until we get this right.