Hasta La Gadget!

Advertising Age has taken a deep dive into Palm’s latest string of unsettling, polarizing ads — you know, the ones with the girl — in an attempt to explain the company’s intention with the creepy spots. The industry paper spoke with Gary Koepke, the co-founder and executive creative director at Modernista, the company which developed and produced the short clips. According to Gary, he’s happy that viewers find the commercials upsetting, stating that “The Pre is probably being talked about more than other phones right now because of the marketing and advertising, and that’s a good thing. Could the ads work harder to show exactly how the phone works? Yes, but we knew it would be polarizing people to have a woman not shout at them and tell an interesting story.” Apparently the agency is taking its own stab at Microsoft’s Seinfeld / Bill Gates strategy, which means viewers don’t necessarily have to like (or even understand) the ads… as long as they keep talking about them. Of course, that game plan may work for a company like Microsoft, which arguably has nothing to lose if they run a few ill-received spots. Palm, on the other hand, won’t get a second chance to make a first impression with a lot of people, and since its fortune is currently riding on the device these ads attempt to sell to consumers, it’s a pretty risky proposition. C’mon, how could the folks that brought you the Foleo be wrong?

Continue reading Palm’s ad agency ‘loves that you’re creeped out’ by new TV spots

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm’s ad agency ‘loves that you’re creeped out’ by new TV spots originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple may have publicly responded to Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters ads with a counterpunch of its own back in May, but it looks like it may have been singing a slightly different tune behind the scenes more recently, at least according to Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner. Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference earlier today, Turner said that he knows the ads are working because “two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying […] ‘Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.'” Turner further went on to note that “they took like $100 off or something,” before stating to applause that it “was the greatest single phone call in the history that I’ve ever taken in business” — though he did apparently take a minute to ask: “Is this a joke? Who are you?” In case you’re wondering, Turner also confirmed that Microsoft is indeed “just going to keep running them and running them and running them.”

[Via Ars Technica]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Microsoft exec says Apple asked them stop airing Laptop Hunters ads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for even more rumors about Windows Mobile 7 and Microsoft’s mysterious “Pink” smartphone project? Good, cause we’ve got a few — and the first is potentially huge. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley says her best understanding of “Pink” is now that it’s a Microsoft-branded phone running a custom UI on top of Windows Mobile 7, developed by what’s left of the Danger team and targeted at the Sidekick market. Yep, Microsoft-branded — as in, the exact thing Microsoft has been denying for ages now. What’s more, Redmond wouldn’t be letting third parties use this new UI — Pink would be manufactured only by Sharp or Motorola, who’ve made Sidekicks in the past. It all makes sense, even if it does feel a bit like MS is knifing its partners in the back — companies like HTC and Samsung have been equally aggressive in layering their own UIs like TouchFLO 3D and TouchWiz on top of WinMo, but it’s another thing entirely to compete against Microsoft itself, especially now that AdWeek says Microsoft’s selected an agency to develop a Pink ad campaign. Yeah, things are starting to get a little wild — we haven’t even mentioned the open questions of whether the Zune HD is running Tegra because it’s based on Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, or whether Pink will launch on Verizon, or whether Zune will appear on other phones, or… you get the idea. Hey Microsoft — you want to clear any of this up by shipping some products?

Read – ZDNet
Read – AdWeek

Filed under: Cellphones

Microsoft’s “Pink” smartphone to be Microsoft-branded? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From the look of it, our BFF Roger McNamee stole himself a copy of Adobe InDesign and has gone wild in Sprint’s ad department, calling out the iPhone for its unitasking nature and spendy contract price. All we have to say is that if this is really going to turn into this generation’s Sega vs. Nintendo war, we’d better see a whole lot more licensed Joe Montana titles.

[Via PreThinking]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sprint takes a bite out of the Apple, touts innovative Pre features like ‘multitasking’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You want obsessive coverage eh, well here it is: the latest Palm Pre ad just unveiled on Facebook. No smack-talk, no smarmy reference to the competition, just an impassioned plea that approaches gently upon the pads of kittens, gazes in your direction, and then walks away. If we didn’t know better, we’d guess that Pre was a new brand of feminine deodorant. Give it a whiff after the break.

Continue reading Video: Latest Palm Pre ad makes poppies seem brutish

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: Latest Palm Pre ad makes poppies seem brutish originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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