Palm dumps Modernista as ad agency, looking for a new partner 93
Mon, 05 Apr 2010 7:53 pm EDT
If we had to pick just one cause behind the failure of the Palm Pre to really catch on with the general public, it’d have to be that increasingly bad advertising from ad firm Modernista that tried and failed to introduce webOS to the world. We won’t link you to them to refresh your memory - you don’t want that. What we will link you to is a report from AdAge: the relationship between Palm and Modernista is over.
Palm is, quite obviously, now in the market for a new ad partner. The new partner will be working with a Palm that has lost a lot of momentum in recent months and has tons of excess inventory to move. Modernista’s ads for Palm have improved recently, so we can’t help but wonder if the parting of ways is more over money than anything else.
Several months ago Cadillac also dumped Modernista, a move that came as part of GM’s restructuring and an effort to cut costs. Modernista is a small independent firm with only a few major clients, and thus charges more than some of their larger Madison Avenue competitors. For their part, Palm has already shifted their focus to point-of-sale advertising (in-store ads and training for store staff) and cut back on expensive television advertising, leaving that to the carriers instead.
[via: PreCentral sister site TreoCentral]
93 Comments
Its about time i truely think that advertising is Palms biggest problem. They already have the best mobile operating system ever created. and also FIRST.
I really hope that whoever gets the next contract will reach out to the passionate people that Palm has in its corner. It might also be good fun to look at Palm's revolutionary history and flash forward to its latest innovation of WebOS that is driving others to adapt
Whether money was an issue is something we'll never know. But we do know the ads this company put out flat out sucked. There is no single bigger factor (including quality) in the success of a product than marketing. People WILL buy crap over and over again if it is marketed well.
About time... marketing moves products... (look at the iPad)...
And bring the Pre+ (or Pre v2.0) to Sprint soon...
Apart from the reveal and the single Academy Awards ad, when was the iPad actually advertised? That thing sold on buzz alone.
+1
Build Quality (TM)
"Build quality" my Aunt Fannie's behind... iSheep will flock to anything that has a little apple on it. Even an ereader guaranteed to give you eyestrain and computer that will only run one program at a time.
We heard you the 3000th time parchma (pats parchma on the head, then wipes hand clean on pants leg).
As I said, gotta love the marketing of the APPLE brand... (and all those macophile bloggers... lol)
Do certain Apple fanboi web sites, *cough* Engadget *cough* Gizmodo, and "reviewers", *cough* Walt Mossberg, count as advertisement?
In my line of work I see a ton of telecom ads, especially the wireless. And I can tell you that I'm glad I'm a techy. Cause if I wasn't, no way would I buy a Palm phone. The ads were some of the worse I've seen.
Verizon is actually pushing the Palm Pre phone in their carrier ads. Looking at the data, it's been in the top 5 wireless ads (on a rating level) 4 out of 5 weeks it has been airing, getting high as #2. So it is getting air play. I believe the Droid has a new ad out right now, so we'll start seeing that make an impact. No idea if that will take away from the Pre though.
Derek/Dieter, if you need something more precise, PM in forums. Same username.
Thank gosh, it is about time!! Apple's biggest strength has been it's marketing. Everything from the Cool guy vs. PC geek commercials to the iPhone commercials with "We have an app for that too". Why has it taken the execs so long to realize that?
Does this mean no more "creepy girl" ads, lol.
maybe palm had a contract with this firm that finally was completed. Lets hope they get a great agency who are as passionate of creating the best work as we are of web os
I've seen this add on HBO every sunday night during "Breaking Bad".. i thought it was a pretty good one, but its the only one i've really seen
Palm needs to fire who ever left out Build Quality (TM)!
If it's the same guy who ruled out No Replaceable Batteries (TM) , No Physical Keyboard (TM) and Fascist Opaque App Store Approvals (TM) then he should definitely stay.
3002
The girl in that ad was definitely NOT creepy. Beautiful smile!
When ever you see Tamara Hope in those commercials, picture her like this instead: http://j.mp/TamaraHope2
So the ad agency had THAT girl and made her look like a borg queen? No wonder they are losing all their clients.
+1000
not a creepy girl :)
I'm available for hire: http://www.webosroundup.com/2010/04/palmspot-entry-webos-does-and-does-a...
Good job.
+1
ok, but it could be a little better. There was no demo of universal search, for example. How about doing a universal search for 'hotel somewhere usa', bringing up the google results, map it, and then tap on the phone number to call to make a reservation (did this just last weekend).
While multitasking and the way it is done is great, more focus should be made on the really unique and innovative things the phone does. Synergy, Universal Search, LINKED CONTACTS!!!, Unobtrusive notifications, etc.
You do touch on them, but there's something not quite awe-inspiring that I can't quite put my finger on.
Nice job, regardless :-)
I agree! Good job, Audemars02...
Go, hire him, Palm - and we'll finally get some ads that make sense (...and sell Pres and Pixies!)
That's such sad news. Me and Creepy Girl were just starting to get to know each other.
Fountainhead, I think the creepy girl he was referring to was the blond girl who actually never smiled. She didn't even look human...more like a robot.
It's not the ad agency to blame. It's actually the Palm Execs. They're the ones who made the stupid idiotic decision to go with that campaign. I hope they focus on the anti-Apple... WebOS should be opened up to developers more unlike Apple. People who get Palm products are actually the renegades Apple users used to be. Now MacGeeks are just sheep now, just like during the PC/Mac wars of yesteryear. Big Brother is now Apple.
Yeah, I remember how Apple started out as the anti-Big Brother computer.
So how's this for a new Palm ad? Starts out with a line of sheep lined up outside of an Apple store. Baaa. Baaa. Cool looking woman walks by with her Palm Pre, quickly switching between Facebook, internet, messaging and making a call. Walks off saying, "Gee, it stinks around here".
An ad with an attitude. I like it!
Ad-itude?
I think we've had enough "women walking by" scenarios in ads. They have to STOP targeting women and start selling on merit.
Refer to the user-created ad posted a few comments above this.... Now THAT'S what Palm should do!
The first place for the new ad agency to look for ideas is the multitudes of comments in LaptopMag.com's March Smart Phone Madness matchups.
Don't want to down precentral, but I read about this new an hour ago on Engadget. Sometimes you precentral guys are slow to catch up.
It takes Derek about an hour to read/copy/paste an article from Engadget.
See, a good marketing company would hire trolls like this guy. That or he's so pathetic he has nothing better to do with his life than troll the boards of a phone he doesn't like (and an OS he wishes he had)
I would disagree. The typos prove it was written rather than copied.
Caricortao brings about as much to the table as CaffieneFree Diet RC.
Sprint, any mobile, any time.
When I worked in ad agencies the clients would change creatives or agencies when there was a new product to design a campaign around.
When I worked in ad agencies the clients would change creatives or agencies when there was a new product to design a campaign around.
Funny... this article does not show up in my RSS feed on my YAHOO home page, no matter how many times I hit RSS refresh. I only saw it when I came to precentral home page.
Too bad Palm is not gonna last too long and actually be outlived by companies such as Pantech.
@caricordumbass
Have you ever had sex? Try it; it may improve your outlook on life.
Why not just pay the people who make the great YouTube ads and random people on Precentral with great slogans? It would be cheaper, and they do a good job of making WebOS look great.
About damn time!
BBDO?
False. It wasn't Palm/Sprint. If the phone would've had half the marketing the iPhone has and the Droid had the story would've been different. But then maybe more people would've had to deal with the sub par build quality of the Pre which would've led to a greater number of complaints and more press about the bad build quality. Betters sales could've actually hurt Palm more...haha. Anyway... this news is 6 months too late. Hope the person that thought those early commercials were a good idea is now bagging groceries somewhere.
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What hurt Palm most was so many months of exclusivity with Sprint. I wanted a Pre since I first heard about the phone over a year ago. It wasn't until January 25th of this year that I was able to acquire one from my provider/network of choice.
By the time the Pre was available from Verizon Wireless, not only was it no longer the technological showpiece it was when originally introduced, but it had a lot more competition.
A lot of progress has been made in the smart phone arena over the past year and the Pre Plus is substantially the same phone that was introduced way back when.
You can blame Palm's ad agency. I blame the relationship between Palm and Sprint. Palm made a bad choice.
Sprint has always been a good partner with Palm and continues to reward customers for selecting the phone on their service. I'm sure Palm approached Verizon and I'm bet Verizon powered them down (consider Verizon's notorious history with smartphones at the time) and the rest is history. VZ didn't even send a live body to CES and put all their eggs in the droid basket a while back as they've always had a good relationship with Motorola.
It's a major blunder that it took this long. Was pretty clear this should have been done after the first commercial.
I see this as the first step to get ready to market there new device.
Has anyone been to Modernista's site ? I'm a web designer and personally I find their own site ugly as well. And their motto seems to be "Modernista is not for everyone, advertising is about art, not science" which is exactly why their ads only appealed to a few metaphorical, art driven folks like us and ignored the majority of Palm's potential customers. All I can say is "Good riddance!" Palm needs to find a better marketing agency that can combine "art" and "function" in a harmonious way.
Wow, Modernista's website is a gigantic fail. The fact that it uses the webpage you used to get to it (e.g., the Google search for "Modernista") as a loud backdrop with their own text and images overlaying it in the corners (and completely getting lost in the process) is awful, awful design any way you slice it. These guys deserve to be flipping burgers, not running multi-million dollar ad campaigns.
I like how that whole page is links to stories about palm dropping them. XD
Very funny, almost priceless. The last commercial was nice but late. Very attractive woman cycling through cards showed the capabilities well enough.
There site is ridiculous and the idea of being so exclusive like "Modernista is not for everyone" makes me think of an undeserved elitist attitude. Their client list is a Flickr photo album damn. The website shows zero creativity. If your trying to be Avant Garde Modernista you fail and it looks like yet another creative agency who is competing with yourselves and your egos. People want to know about the product and it's capabilities. If it were a establish brand like Ferrari you could appeal to abstract ideals but Ferrari doesn't need to advertise because of people who know who they are, can't afford one anyway.
Looks like their goal of working with a small group of clients is in everyone's best interest.
The first Pre commercial was actually pretty cool.
As a one-off ad to introduce the phone and get people intrigued, the first ad wasn't bad. To base a whole campaign on such ephemeral (and that's being kind) advertising was just plain moronic. Sure, at first you want to just get people interested in the mystique of the phone, but it took Modernista (and ultimately, Palm, because they're responsible for what they approve) way too long to come up with an ad that actually showcased what the Pre could do.
The thing that kills me is, they already had good ads ready to go, if they'd've just run with them. The short videos they had on the site were much better at introducing the phone and its capabilities than the ads ever were. The only thing the ads made you wonder was what mood-altering drug they'd injected the poor girl with...
To: Jon Ruby & Co.
Re: Advertising
Dear Jonny, two words for you...FOCUS GROUPS!!!! You can't honestly tell me you surveyed groups of potential customers and they said;
"I like that ad. The pasty white female speaks to my inner albino. I also love that phone with no descernable features on it. I'll take 3 please."
WTH?? I've spent only a little time in marketing (desktop pub) and even I know focus groups are key. Good riddance! May Modernista never work in this town again!
no need for focus groups. all they have to do is hang out at PreCentral and see the stuff we post. ANd watch the spots taat users create for free such as the one shown earlier in this thread. I'ts really smart!
No need of fancy ads. Just slap on real testimonies of users.
TreoCentral still gets updated? That is less of a sister sight and more of a grandmother site.
what's wrong with this commercial? i get it. what's not to understand?
Two suction cup mechanical arms aren't typing way too fast on it?
There's no app to open my vienna sausages cause i have orange cheeto fingers?
I like Mos Def, attractive women, the city, and mulititasking in a warm weather month.
How about its more that i didnt see the phone advertised during football season, during the yankees/red sox game, during the olympics, probabaly not on 'the view', oprah's not toting one, tiger didnt send the 'wear u out' message on it, and its not nestled between kim kardashian's whatever.
The droid is more successful and their ads were of a friggin mini meteor; dumb, but when did it air? oh yea, during the giants/cowboys game
Check ratings of tv programs, crack wallet, flood with commercials
Alright it's not to late. It sucks I saw a commercial for the Droid that mentioned Multi-Tasking before one for the Pre. Although I will say it did not show the Droid doing much. Who ever this new ad partnership is with, let's show em what webOS can do and what multi-tasking is all about! Palm, we've be gettin battered and bruised in every ad campaign. It's time we swing back and flex our muscles!
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!
I think Palm needs some management changes. Remember, the ad agencies don't do this in a void! If they did, shame on Palm for allowing that.
Palm has innovation and great technology with the software but I think their product management team in lacking. They need it all together. You can have the best product but if you don't know how to market it or have the guts to go hard with it, you will end up second best.
It may be mad delayed, but recently, the only ads I've been seeing in Boston's MBTA (subway system) are some Boston billboards are Palm Pre ads. It's been mad effective, but I agree, it's very delayed.
My Pre jus gav me a Update URL. Wat does that mean?
Dunno, that's a common Android error usually calling for a reboot and remove the last app added (incompatible). Try the webos forum for help.
I wonder how much money Palm wasted on the original China commercial & the one's with the creepy lady total? Could have been used for R&D on better hardware!
Or hire more developers to FINISH THE SOFTWARE!
testimonials from user is a great idea for palm to still market this great product today!!!! I definitely agree!!
They should just give W+K a try.
I support palm. However, I can see that the thing (among others) that separates palm from the likes of Apple is trust. Consumers trust apple because their products 'just work'. Predictable quality, formfactors, connectors, etc.also add to this.
Palm has an awkward history of changing form factors, connectors,SD card sizes, etc. without warning. Just remember the T2 T3 thingy. And the microsoft version of the treo! - it had mini SD and others with or without SDHC, micro USB etc. Retailers and manufacturers are left with outdated accessories and consumers are annoyed with having to buy all new accessories with each upgrade.
The speed of trust is what sells new apple products. People trust them to produce a quality product that will work and won't unreasonably leave consumers out in the cold when the next innovation comes along. They look after their customers.
You can't advertise your way quickly out of a poor perception that you've spent years earning with second rate products.
It will take years of good systematic innovation and loyalty to their end user to really improve their advertising.
This is what I see the new palm now doing.
The problem goes deeper than ads. The first and biggest problem: Palm got away from what made them famous, and that is great (PIM) personal information management products. Second, no sync client for music, calenders, contacts, notes, and to do's, with Macs and PC's.
+1
We can blame Modernista all we like but:
1) Palm told them to focus on 'synergy' the solution to a problem most people didn't know they had.
2) Palm didn't have them showcase multitasking and card management, the fuctions we all can relate to.
3) Palm approved the borg queen's interaction with the collective and the 'flow' ads that didn't really give the phone life or personality so divorce may not have disposed of the lesser partner.
Palm may have approved the borg ad, but the fact that Modernista dreamt it up in the first place should have been a red flag for Palm. No creativity whatsoever.
Here is my idea for a commercial. Opens up with an iphone and a pre side by side. The pre multitasks for a few seconds then you hear a woman speak as she plays with the iphone and she says wow look how many fart apps are here I love this phone. Then she picks up the pre and says not any fart apps but wow i can open up my browser, my email, my phone and uses them simultaneously. Thats amazing she says as the sun gets really bright and male voice comes in and says in todays age we all multitask why shouldnt our phones?
why not just hire the guy that made the nice Youtube video about the Pre??
I had an interesting conversation with a guy at my office yesterday. He was talking about his iPhone. He said that if he was listening to Pandora while he received a text, if he chose to reply to that text Pandora would shut down, the music stops, he replies to the text, has to reopen Pandora, wait for it to buffer, and then finally get his music back.
I said, "Really?? My Palm Pre would let me run Pandora in the background and reply to the text at the same time. My music wouldn't have to stop just to reply to a text!"
His response? "Yeah, but it's a Palm."
That just showed me how much people have bought into the "Apple is cool" marketing idea. They are willing to pay 4 times as much for an inferior product, just because it has an Apple on it.
Palm should target the iPhone directly, and show the exact scenario I just talked about. Show two people listening to Pandora on their phones. One on an iPhone, and one on a Pre. Then they both get a text. Show them replying to the text, and how crappy the iPhone handles it, while the Pre user just keeps on rockin'.
Then target the whole "Droid Does" campaign. Show exactly what it DOESN'T do that the Pre DOES!
People just assume that the iPhone does everything perfectly, because the people in the "Cult of Apple" would lead you to believe that. Show the world that it's just not true!
This has to be one of the most amazing comments I've ever read.
In one of my classes I am surrounded by iPhone users, and it saddens me to see them so militant about their devices when they lack so much. I get into heated debates with one of them over the Pre vs iPhone, and she's convinced that multitasking is not a legitimate reason to not use an iPhone.
Really? That's the entire reason to not use an iPhone. Ok, most of the reason. Notifications, anyone? Synergy? Over-the-air updates? A fanbase that is devoted because of the operating system, not because of the stamp on the back of the device? Seriously. The iPhone is not the be-all-end-all just because it's an Apple product. She's never touched my Pre, has no desire to touch my Pre, and would never stray from the iPhone just on principle. So "Cult of Apple" is a completely appropriate term to coin.
I think the "Cult of Apple" is a real phenomenon, and I too have seen it in action. Last month I had two different friends stay at my place, both of whom had iPhones. When I showed them my Pre, they were both pretty surprised at the features and functionality. One friend kept saying, "my phone does this and this and this, I bet yours doesn't," to which my reply was that it could, and it could do it all at the same time. The thing is, Apple has such slick marketing (based on many misrepresentations of their products's capabilities) and fantastic design (hardware and OS) that the products basically sell themselves. The iPhone is certainly not the best device out there, but it has made the smartphone accessible to so many people that it has set a new standard. As much as I hate to admit, because I'm not a huge Apple fan and love my webOS, it almost seems impossible to budge consumers from the "Cult of Apple" mindset, no matter how well the Pre and webOS stack up compared to the iPhone.
You said it yourself, people "are willing to pay 4 times as much for an inferior product, just because it has an Apple on it." Even when people know the capabilities of the Pre, I don't see it changing minds. That's why I think it's great Palm is focusing on point of sale. When they can have well-trained salespeople who actually will recommend the product and can physically show the consumer how well it works, I think a lot more webOS fever will be generated.
I agree with your sentiments 100 percent, but I think it's close to impossible to pry people away from the "Cult."
I can't find the links... but some of the Bell (Canada) ads last year were great! Fun, informative, cool...
One thing I was thinking about is that Palm needs to come out with a phone that people can associate with.
To be honest Palm's phones are too weirdly shaped in a world of Nexus Ones, Droids and iPhones.
They need to come out with a phone that's full screen, on screen keyboard and one or two buttons at the bottom. Yet still make it sexy. That will bring new buyers.
PLEASE idea people. no more bad karma requests for an onscreen keyboard unless it also comes with a bigger slide out. some of us HATE typing on the on screen. fingernails cause many typos and missed letters for one thing. we need both to have the advantage.
i'm sure, as i said in my important post on the ad agency article, they are working on a better form factor as we speak and sprint will get it first since we did all the ground work.
Unfortunately, that's the hot thing right now. You may not like it, I may not like it. But what we both like may not be what sells. If their phone needs to be shit colored to sell, then it needs to be.
1st off - whatever happened to the good ol days when the marketing/ad agent had to show the client all the ideas and wait for approval(like on Bewitched with Darren Stevens always wooing the client at the last second?).
2nd (as pertaining to 1st) communication goes a long way. the commercial itself is actually well thought out and catchy but it's got an ethnic vibe that will only sell to a small portion of Palm's potential audience. If they did several like that but voice them to different audiences it would be fine. anyway, why fire a company for the ad that wasn't reviewed by the client. the ad is good but not for Palm in gen.
3rd - i tell everyone i can how pleased i am with the WebOS and the genius marketing move to let us lay people hack the phone and test new apps without voiding the warranty ( OC patchers be careful of legal terms 'may or may not void the warranty...').
THIS IS OUR COMPANY NOW! anyone in the Mojo SDK/PDK community should go buy stock right now while is just over $3 and then ADVERTISE our product to anyone and everyone who'll listen. I do.
I bought stock with my last $100 before the Pre was announced because I had a feeling they were making something to make up for the poor 755p. it was $3.18/share. i got about 30 with the $ i had. I sold half when it was $18/share after CES and used the cash to pay for MY Pre.
Just yesterday I was talking to a friend who was Palm before the Iphone and he said "oh they are in big trouble. you should give up." because he was hearing the untruths from the internet and the lame stock experts whom probably short sold Palm stock on purpose to make $$$$ like they do all the time. He was curious to hear my side and probably went home to research my praise about the Mojo fun.
I am living check to check after a long term work related illness battle. I am not rich to blow $$$ on frivolous things. I buy 20 shares when cheap instead of doing the Latte at BigBucks coffee or McD's for a week or so. You'd be surprised how easy it is to add up your stocks gradually. Don't tell me you guys can't do that when you've got fancy phones in your hand ok :)
GO BUY STOCK AND TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU TELL US HERE IN MOJO-LAND. WE LOVE OUR PALMS. LETS SHOW SOME SUPPORT.
*tip - the girl at the sprint store actually hacker her own pre and knew exactly what i was talking about. it was sooooo refreshing. i bricked mine trying to root the bad patches off after 1.4.11 dropped and it would not stop cycling the PALM logo so i couldn't doctor it and they couldn't either. got a new one no prob.
i asked her on the 'wink wink' when sprint would be getting the Plus and she said they weren't but she didn't know why. i'm betting we will be first for a NEW WebOS phone with a better formfactor. thats why. AND THEN I WILL BE LAUGHING TO THE BANK WHEN I SELL MY STOCKS AFTER THEY GO BACK UP TO $18 or $20.
So will the new agency try to sell WebOS phones to men? So far Palm, Sprint, and Verizon have only tried to sell it women: the Creepy Girl and Shoe Shopping ads by Palm; the "Pre Plus is for Mom" by Verizon; and the Teenage Girl and Ski Lift ads by Sprint. It's a gadget, available in any color as long as it's black, so they should be targetting men.