PlayBook marketing: Can RIM do better than Palm? [Video] 29
As our friends in the world of Blackberry boldly ride on Palm’s coattails embark upon a journey of reinvention with the recent launch of PlayBook, they’re faced with an incredibly similar challenge as the stewards of our favorite OS: How do you convey the elegance of a new, complex OS in the span of a 30 second commercial spot, and even more importantly, how do you make people want it?
Recently RIM’s first PlayBook commercial aired nationally, giving us a glimpse into how they plan on tackling that task. With all of the obvious similarities between webOS and PlayBook, perhaps we (and HP) can learn something from Waterloo’s first volley into this incredibly competitive space. [videos after the break]
Now, before we get too high and mighty, here are a few examples of webOS marketing campaigns past to give us some perspective.
and of course the now infamous:
All right, enough humble pie. Can our friends in the frozen north do any better? Here’s their first go-round:
Well that wasn’t so bad, was it? It seems at first blush that RIM’s got all the important pieces firmly in place. Catchy song? Check. Portability? double check. Multitasking, fast app-switching, video,and books? Check, check, check and check. In a lot of ways, this is exactly the kind of add we were hoping to get from Palm all along. But is it enough? The PlayBook, like webOS in it’s entirety, faces an existential problem. Why go to this instead of “a ‘droid’” or “one of those iPads” like everyone else already has? Looking at it that way, I’m not so sure this ad goes far enough.
And speaking of iPads, we’d be remiss to leave out that 800lb gorilla of the tablet space, wouldn't we? By any reasonable estimation Apple owns the market they singlehandedly created, and for good reason. Their products have cachet. An it status. It puts them in the enviable position of not having waste even a breath about features. They are the ones to be differentiated from, and so they speak simply, tug heartstrings, and release this:
So you've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. At the end of the day, by sheer nature of reading this site, none of us are a good example of John Q. Public. But let’s step outside of our geeky shoes for a minute and hazard a guess. Does the Blackberry ad hit the mark? Sound off in the comments and tell us why or why not.
29 Comments
no
they need to clearly define
"what can this do"
"what am I showing to you".
The ads is a mix of a bunch of fancy snap shots. It fails to explain to audience above two primary questions.
The ads like the old video on Palm.com is good. The one with narrator saying "I wake up in the morning, coffee in one hand, palm pre in the other, etc".
"PlayBook marketing: Can RIM do better than Palm?"
THEY'D BE HARD PRESSED TO DO ANY **** WORSE!
i don't think that you actually need to explain the product to the consumer; just fill the ad full of incredible amounts of eye candy and a narrator with a deep voice, then your good to go.
The Palm ad with the lady walking down the street actually sold me on my Pre+ (Don't miss a thing, life moves fast.)
Playbook Ad is okay
Agreed. I (personally) think that was a great way to show the power and flexibility of webOS. It's a shame that Maps App she uses doesn't really exist, though. YP Mobile is probably the closest thing (that I've seen).
M.
Agreed. I loved AT&T's market campaign for the Pre Plus. First campaign that actually sold the product, which is why I'm happy that's where the Veer went.
Playbook ad was ok.
The Blackberry AD is kinda of a yawner...
The "Don't miss a think, life moves fast" (and the other similar ones Palm had at the time) are a great example of illustrating the feel/ease of use/functionality of the device and how it makes real world life better...and at the same time fulfills the aspirational goal of advertising. Buy this product and you can be as hip as a city woman in funky boots or the successful business man buying his dream house, etc...
A RIM device with no Email support is automatic fail. Save the marketing money to get email on that brick.
I'll say this: they better have TONS of quality, mainstream, mega-popular apps to show off in whatever marketing they do. And they better be something other than Twitter apps.
I think that ALL of HP's new ad campaigns should directly attack it's main two competition, Apple and Android. Say it proudly "Our product is better and here is why!".....
For the Touchpad: Make all your iPad friends jealous, get the new HP Touchpad.
any bold ads like that would definitely get EVERYONES attention.
...they could just keep saying "we are better than number one, we call ourselves number one-plus"
:)
But seriously - you are quite frankly right - "Droid does" cuts it, doesn't it? The phone/ad campaign that effectively had put Android on the map, for Joe Public.
So unfortunate that HP currently does not have one of the key ingredients of that successful hardware/advertising combo - they don't have strong enough hardware (Pre 3 killer hardware is not, it is "only" sound & solid). As for the ads, it remains to be seen...
I hate to say it but I think one of the big pluses about the iOS ads is that they show really cool apps being used, whether the brain scan, stocks, document editing, etc. Taking useful apps and adding the multi-tasking, simple notifications, etc, would be a good thing for the webOS world.
I don't really get RIM and the Playbook, but wow it's Multitasking and and gesture areas are what the Touchpad should of had. Either way, the Playbook isn't worth the money in such a small package no matter the advertisements.
Ipad 2 has the limelight, but I can wait for ipad 3 with true multitasking and notifications that work before it even becomes an option.
What's interesting is no mention of Android tablets or advertisements. I guess they don't have to advertise. Sorli...
I think it's a problem if Palm is using RIM as a measuring stick for either phones or tablets in this day.
Sometimes I think that I'd be good at marketing. Sometimes I am simply baffled by it.
Case in point for the latter:
WHY do iPads have "cachet" and "status"? EVERYBODY HAS ONE.
Because Apple is an expensive, premium brand. Premium brands come with status. No different then buying a Mercedes or Cartier watch. When it comes to personal electronics, Apple products are Mercedes, the others are Hondas and Fords.
This isn't true, at least with the iPhone and the iPad. Similarly capable phones and tablets are similarly priced (including, if rumor is correct, the TouchPad). Mercedes and Cartier are more expensive than other similarly capable items, and (and this is my point) thus *more rare*.
Everyone had iPads and iPhones, and with the new $49 3GS, and as first-gen iPads continue to hit the used market, this will become even more true.
My theory continues to be that iPhones and iPads don't have "cachet" and "status" ... they have second-hand familiarity. People buy these products because they know so many people with these products.
Think about it: if you went to, oh, a ball-park, would it be easier for you to see someone using iOS or webOS? Would it be more likely that you'd get hands-on, in the wild, with iOS or webOS?
Familiarity, not status. They're actually *opposites*, and that's important because it informs the marketing.
"You've seen how an iPhone works. It's a nice device. But we dare you to explore webOS. You'll be ensnared by the elegance, the power, of its multitasking and intuitive function. [Shot of BART interior, lots of iOS everywhere. User breaks out a webOS device, and everybody stares enviously.] Does it seem like everyone has the same phone? Why do you want to be everyone?"
In other words, done right, *webOS* can become the status symbol, the device with cachet.
I love my Focus!
I think the Playbook ad is very good... a tablet thats small, powerful and yet easy to carry with you and "just use"...
Unfortunately, unless you are a Blackberry phone user, then currently a lot of that functionality is missing.
The hardware is great, the OS is nice (VERY WebOS like), but the apps are a lackin'. Especially the essentials...
WTF how did I never see that pixi commercial with sleepyhead???????? was it ever on precentral? I love that song!
That ad with the Mos Def song (where the woman is walking and cards are floating in front of her) wasn't too bad, especially since it showed off webOS instead of any device. It would be nice to say something about webOS & it's true multi-tasking, then say something about it being available in small, medium, & large... and by the way, they can talk to each other
The girl was hot and that commercial rocked for that reason.
First day of business classes, first advanced Marketing class, the professor asks the group of eager, informed classmates:
"What is the single most important factor to create the impression of a good product?"
After a few minutes of people tossing out ideas regarding advertising and PR and promotions and celebrity endorsements and the like, he said:
"The single most importart factor in creating the impression of a good product is to HAVE a good product to begin with."
He went on to illustrate how advertising either supports, or hurts that, but if you have a product that is overwhelmingly buggy or doesn't perform as you said it would, to any other flaws, advertising won't overcome that.
HP should build it as good as they can, and make it as rock solid as they can right out of the gate. Then the actual ad mix (or the specific celebrity endorsements) won't be as important - just that there is an ad is what will matter.
You see, Apple starts the ad with why, how they make it, and finally what they have made; whereas Palm kind of blended all together so that it seems vague as to what the product is.
"If you don't have an iPad, well, you don't have an iPad"; WHO CARES! You can have something better, they just need to know how and why.....
When I first saw the "you don't have an iphone" ads, I thought it was a commercial for a droid. They kept talking about all the things, I'm glad I DON'T have without an iphone....especially iTunes, etc. Oh, not to mention: "if you don't have an iPhone, you probably have Flash...
The PlayBook ad I liked better than the one in this article is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL78qcKqd38
They also have one that focuses on its flash support and clearly has its sights on the iPad.
It seems like RIM is pushing way harder than Palm ever did. First thing I noticed, was on the homepage of bestbuy, and staples, BAM, playbook ad, with a countdown. Insert the touchpad count down joke here.
If you physically go to the store, there are posters everywhere, "Playbook is here" or something like that. You can't miss it.
Once the playbook actually launched, I started to see the commercials on TV.
HP/Palm needs to be aggressive like that. Most people have never heard of a TouchPad, or even a Pre for that matter!
Funny thing is I don't even remember the HP effort to market their new range of products that are apparently around the corner...
I think RIM are doing a good job in at least pushing their products and they are getting the air time.
Even Motorola are doing something...
HP... you are a joke, and im a WebOS fan boy...just not an HP idiot...sell what's left of WebOS's dignity to RIM or Google this way you'll at least be doing WebOS's future a favour.
Red.
"PlayBook marketing: Can RIM do better than Palm?"
...well, since it is physically impossible to do WORSE then Palm was/is doing for most of the time (up until now, under HP's badge), then by the rules of logic, in the worst case scenario they'll do equally bad, but in the average-case scenario, they will do better.