Palm's 'Movies' ad makes it a set 58
by Jonathan I Ezor Wed, 28 Apr 2010 3:17 pm EDT
Looks like we have the new look of Palm's ads fairly established now: somebody out there, mobile, magically interacting with a floating screen that simultaneously changes the landscape surrounding our flaneur. Sure, there's not much focus on the hardware itself, but we're cool with that at this point. Bottom line: No more creepy women, no more moms, just a good indicator of the multitasking and Internet connectivity that are the hallmarks of webOS.
Here we have 'The Movies,' and as with Shoes and the 'New Digs,' we like what we see. You?
58 Comments
palm posted an "american" version of the "french" ad on their youtube page as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00wKyh-7ccw
THIS JUST IN HEWLETT PACKARD JUST BROUGHT PALMllll
Why no AT&T in the retailers' list?
because they haven't launched on at&t yet, even though you've probably seen launch material here and there.
think the other one is hipper, sexier and a bit better. Not bad but this dude has on a button up sweater and the music is boring. close but no cigar cause it's not that memorable.
Are these on tv? Because I don't remember seeing them. And to repeat what I wrote before: Where are the awesome reviews of the phone and OS? So easy to include, and would have a big impact.
I think this one is great! I like how it showed the movie theatre app.
And what is the song playing?
great ads. too bad it's just now happening while blackberry has a very similar ad showing off their new os version.
question is...who did it first?
When can we have actual transparent, floating, heads-up displays?
Will that be parrt of the C40?
We have enough problems with people talking on the street and texting while driving. I can't imagine how bad that would be for society at our current level of advancement...
Still would've been nice to see these ads last summer.
This whole series of ads are very nice to look at, and I will admit the last two seem to show off a bit more of the "getting" stuff done part of life (finding a movie to go to and finding a new apartment), but I still think they are a bit too vague. At this point Palm needs to be more explicit about what WebOS can do. From 3 ads, I have learned that WebOS can find movies, shoes and look at pictures in emails. I also have a vague idea that it can play music and look at calendars.
However, no where does it explicitly show off the multitasking. If I have never used WebOS how am I to know that those floating screens are essentially what shows up on the device? I also don't know that it does video, or that I can share that video with people easily. I guess my point is from the Droid and iPhone commercials I am told what the device can do and I am not left guessing.
+1
They need to show the unique features of webOS!
Palm, wake up!!!!
Maybe they want to leave us getting, so the consumer will look it up. This would have worked early on in the ad campaign, but its too late. I agree they need to have some more in your face ads that clearly show the benefits of the Pre.
My sentiments exactly.
People here are excited about the ads just because they aren't as horrible as the creepy lady. But people here are Palm geeks, they know webOS in and out. There is nothing shown in those ads that cannot be done on an iPhone... sometimes better.
Show features. Make a Mickey Mouse ad for once. Show why people should buy a Palm. This won't do it.
Very promising! Hopefully these ads will actually be seen
It's better than the old ads but still not good enough.
It doesn't show well a lot of webOS unique features like synergy, unobtrusive notifications, gesture area, touchstone charger, physical keyboard, etc. etc.
I fear that a lot of people would think that it's just an iPhone clone.
Palm should borrow AT&T's ad which is much better!!!!!
Sweet, I also look cocky and the other way when I flick a card up.
THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT! The cards! ATT ad was good. This ad says Palm is what's happening. All we are missing is the cards. We need one finger. Just one, on a real Pre, flicking away the CARDS! I should go into advertising.
I think these are better, but i still don't think it tells someone who doesn't already know about webOS what it can do.
I still think they need to be more like the iPhone commercials, which is what tired to do with my PalmSpot commercial (yes, i am plugging it yet again)
here us my commercial..what do you think?
Main link = http://www.webosroundup.com/2010/04/palmspot-entry-webos-does-and-does-a...
Youtube link = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9aeg1gF5w
Great job man. I really like that ad. It shows real world use and how unobtrusive WebOS is... especially when the notifications pop up.
Great ad!
i thought Palm dropped Modernista as their ad agency. This is about the same as the shoe woman they did a while back. I guess that Modernista made a few commercials for Palm that they've been waiting to release for some time now.
All 3 of these ads were shot in the same week, back in February. I know because I worked on them. Palm just recently dropped Modernista. It takes a little longer than that to make a commercial, my friend.
A good ad, but I wish it wasn't so stereotypical and condescending.
I mean, it's obviously making fun of tool-ish hipsters like the rest of the ads that made fun of mothers and women. ;)
I really believe that the guy looks like a tool-ish hipster.
Sprint customers fit anything but the hipster profile. They are more like budget conscious everymen.
A Palm a hipster phone? I mean, they are giving them away these days! Give me a break!
Hopefully these will be the last Modernista ads. Maybe the C40 will have better ads.
These ads show that Palm is running around like a headless chicken. They have no idea how to market this device, or who to sell it to. That's why they came up with the idea of targeting women at first. We all know what happened to that idea.
Until Palm can figure out exactly what their device does for its users that other devices can't do, we will be stuck with such ads.
I dont really have an opinion for the first half of the post but really agree 100% with the second one.
Did you get to see what they wrote on Facebook? something like *since you guys liked our last ad we made more*!!! I couldnt even believe it! They clearly are lost in space! I hope everyone who reads this knows where I'm coming with this, it is not about us, it is about those out there.
"it is not about us, it is about those out there."
+1
I should also point out how carefully I had to choose my words there to something that wouldn't be offensive to anyone. ;)
I would've personally liked to see the second one in the set be a businessman or something of that sort, but it's better than nothing.
OMG this is so sexist!!!! I can't believe they show a 20-something looking up movie theaters like that's all we do?!? We also like to ogle at beautiful women and eat large amounts of food. We're not so one dimensional!!!!
They should have had him swipe the pale, creepy girl out of the way in the first screen.
+1
LOL!
Better but still fails to TELL people why should they buy Palm, what Palm Does that the competitor doesn't. If something they should learn from Apple is two things, One, People Don't like to think so do the Thinking for them! TELL them why should they buy Palm and not iPhones/Android/WM7 etc... and 2, K.I.S.S., this is the most basic and has worked wonders for Apple, Keep It Short and Simple! (golden rule!)
+1
I still can't believe Apple has the best multitask commercial! remember the "can your phone do that?" one?
it has two things, 1st it TELLS the people what the phone can DO (which must have been a slap in the face to Palm especially knowing that Palm is the multitasking king) and 2nd it follows the K.I.S.S. rule! did the viewers got the message? for crying out loud I hate the iPhone and it made me doubt for a second.
+1
I love when they show the app switching & various gestures.
He is reading the text backwards. Wow, that's really impressive that he can use WebOS from behind and still multitask...
Funny how the two biggest self-professed multitasking platforms....WM and Web OS, have the two smallest share and the platform with the nil multitasking ability has virtually the biggest marketshare. What does that tell Palm? It should tell them that most folk don't give two tartan hoots about multitasking.
just look at the new blackberry OS 6 here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlO8KMv7Bx4
WebOS is the greatest mobile OS ever !
this commercial makes me want to buy another Pre! If they would have put this out from day one Palm would be in such a good position right now!
It's all going to get lost in the noise anyway, because Blackberry have copied the life size transparent screen swipe format to promote BB 6.0
http://www.everythingberry.com/video-preview-blackberry-os-6-297
I'd venture to guess that after seeing both most casual onlookers will just think Palm's ads are for the Blackberry.
I think the blackberry video makes the same mistakes that Palm made. It's a woman in a clothing store. She is spinning around so much it's distracting. There is no "card view" so it's not obvious whether all those apps are running/interacting, or just being run one at a time like an iPhone.
I really wish Palm would just run merit-based ads like this:
"hey, here is how I use multi-tasking at home depot to compare prices, and get input from my wife on which color to get, while taking care of email and calls from the office... can your phone do that?"
That's what Jobs understands. He says "watch me do something magical" and the "something" can be easily related to. Then he shows them how simple it is to do, and everyone says "wow, that really WAS magical. Hey Steve, what else can it do? And when can I get one?" etc etc
I think that Blackberry ad is terrible, right down to the over-used song...
I like the commercial, but the use cases are always the same. Either someone setting up a social gathering, or someone making last minute changes to a sales presentation. Take a look at the commercials for Clear WiMax service... they have one of each.
They need a scenario that resonates more with what people actually do all day (and not everyone is a social coordinator or a salesman with a boss that sends last minute changes).
If you ever go to a Microsoft Office event, they ALWAYS show the last minute presentation updates from different people being gathered for an important sales meeting. But, the audience is usually nothing but Info Tech people. Most people in IT don't like sales people, and don't relate to the scenario of important sales presentations, etc.
I think that's why Apple is so effective in their ads. They pick things that resonate. Like sharing baby's first steps with grandma. Identifying and buying a new song while listening with friends. killing time in a waiting room, etc.
We need to think up scenarios that resonate with average people. Some of the PalmSpot entries do that well - especially the "Palm Does, and Does, and Does more" entry.
My 2 cents...
I like them a lot better but don't think they show enough that it can "multi-task". Sure he flips through cards, but people probably just think it means it can do all that...not all at once. People are not that into understanding things these days unless you spell it out. Hopefully these help though!
i hate to say it, but after seeing these recent ads pop up, it's obvious that the Palm advertising team hasn't truly grasped what the objective really needs to be right now in terms of communicating the message. And I'm not totally sure that they know how crucial a time it is right now, given that new phones are surely on their way come summer time. Reality: there is not much time to convince the general public that are not Palm users that you really should use our products over the others.
Everyone is just so giddy over multi-tasking...why? Everyone who owns a Palm now knows that there are only a few select moments when multi-tasking is really that smooth, when it doesn't start huffing and puffing because you are asking it to do more than one thing at a time. The biggest problem with multi-tasking on the Pre is that it can't do it like everyone thinks it should work. It's not beefy enough. End of story. Sure I can switch between the phone keypad, then go to my messages, then go to a webpage, but what if i want to pull up three different webpages, is it smooth? is it able to do that without complaining? the answer is no.
Palm ads feature people on the go, on the run, using their phones multi-tasking abilities. People don't need to see vague, see-through environments that go so fast, you can't tell what's going on. I KNOW what I'm supposed to be seeing, but that is only because I own a Pre. Someone who has no familiarity with a Palm Pre/Pixie will not fully appreciate the OS when it is wobbling down the sidewalk at half opacity. What they come away with is some catchy song, some semi-attractive nobody moving their whole arm back and forth, and no real intimate connection as to what they are doing in the OS. I hate to say it, but Palm needs the exact commercials like Apple pulled off.
At&t was close, but it missed the mark because they did not have a hand making the gestures. I don't know if I want to keep this rant up about what Palm needs to do with simple advertising, but I am feeling that they don't really know what they want to convey. They are in the middle of an ocean, arms waving about. Focus on doing it right, execute, then do it again. What happened to the CEO JR saying they were going to go for a more viral approach to advertising from on and focus that extra moolah on R&D? If they think these are viral, then they are wrong.
+100
It's HORRIBLE and here's why.
I know what webOS can do and I still have a hard time watching what's going on it's so fast and bouncy.
Someone who has never used webOS won't have a clue what's going on other then a lot of screens are flying around.
Quit the bouncing that's supposed to simulate moving while he's walking. It makes it hard to read.
Then have a voice over talk through it saying I can recieve and IM, open a web browser, check out my calendar and set a show time as the person is doing it.
What you have now is nothing but a bunch of flashy movmement that doesn't really tell me anything.
I think it is time for me to invent all these floating screens we are seeing in all these stupid phone commercials! I'd make millions after all this free promotion! "Screw the iPad, I want those floating screens thingy"
Really, are they all using the same advertise? Is some high school kid giving away cheap services to make apps float in-front of people? The apps ARE ON THE PHONE! and playing music will some one uses it does not help anyone understand why they need it!
I like the music and how it goes with his walking, but I have to agree that it's hard to figure out what's happening. You can't watch what screen he's looking at and the background changing at the same time, which makes it confusing.
I watched it once. I have a vague recollection of a guy with perfect hair on flat ground walking like he's marching uphill. And he was teleporting in and out of this plane of existence while fiddling with floating screens. Confusing.
Why do we need all the bubblegum-pop style? Just show an image of the pretty phone doing a number of tasks that people often use. The most effective ad for the iPhone was just a shot of it with a hand manipulating the screen.
The ad was nicely put together, and stylish, but I'm a practical, no bullsh!t person that likes to know the truth, not be dazzled by marketing magic.
I really like how the apps to each side swivel and go away as he selects the Fandango app at 10 seconds in. Wish my pre did that :p
Does anyone else think his right arm looks weird not moving while he's walking at the end after he picks up the phone call? Wasn't that on Seinfeld?
I'm diggin these new commercials.
This guy looks way more Ivy League or law-school than hipster to me. Also - its interesting that Chris (guy? girl?) texts him asking if he wants to go to a movie, but then he gets a call from Kathryn and asks her if she wants to go to a movie. Is he trading up?
All i wanna know is what's the name of that song?
Um.. yeah. I like my Palm Pre, but I wish it were as responsive as the one in this ad..
It's a good ad, but I'd rather see these things shown happening on the actual device. People see a dude moving the apps in the air, they might assume Palm is just showcasing a bunch of different apps, not that you can genuinely multitask all of them. Showing them on the phone is the proof.
Just saw a "banner" ad on CNN.com which shows the multi-tasking and cards in a nice, simple manner, "Switch from one open app to another, and back again."
The banner format seems to be roughly 4:3, like a TV.
That's all they need to show.
IMO the BB ad is too similar, and also really annoying.
What we really need is an ad showing all the great productivity apps you can run, like Word Processing and Spreadsheets and how you can print to networked printers with WiFi.
According to my Shazam iphone app :) the song is Burial by Miike Snow. Yes, Miike.