Dell's "Steve" was really good for Dell...

[BlingBling 3k12]

According to an ABC News 20/20 report that I just saw on TV, because of the "Steve" ad-campaign, Dell recieved over a 100% increase in purchases when it started airing.

GODDAMNIT APPLE NEEDS TO BUY OUT STEVE!

[Matrix Agent]

<----------------------------- He can go to H - E double hockey sticks.

[adambyte]

Wow, everybody hates him, but people buy their computers. Interesting. Apparently Apple should start a campaign called "Think Annoyance."

[roger]

You have to look at what constitutes a good advert. A good advert is one that gets its message across and the consumer remembers it. It doesn't matter whether whether you like the characters or not. Some of the most enjoyable adverts are actually very bad because even though they made me laugh I cannot remember what the product was at the end of it, and more to the point, don't care about learning what the product was.

The Dell advert seems to be working because it is different to the rest of the PC adverts which state "brandname" and a bland list of specifications, which to be honest, no one really cares about. The Dell advert simply states that the computer does what it can do and that it can do it, much like apple adverts messages.

I think that the reason that Steve has been chosen is a clever piece of pyschology. Computers are bought by people with at least some money (they are not cheap). This means people who are working and a lot of them are parents. Computers are an odd product in that the kids usually know more about them than the parents, so by presenting an older teenager with the message the parents are being told that this is something that their kids would use, and if the kids would use this computer then it is probably OK because they know what they are talking about. If an old guy came on the TV and told you that his computer was the one to use then you be less likely the believe him. The ad also brings computer sales down to a personal level - Steve appears to be a real person - we are talking about 'him' and the Dell adverts themselves.

The fact that Steve is really annoying just means that you are more likely the remember the message than not. This will make it a good advert - it gets it message across and you will remember it. The fact that we are talking about it in forums will have the ad agency (and Dell) very happy.

Look at the best apple adverts - they had someone doing something with their mac/ipod, etc. They could have probably had more branding to distinguish between a Mac and a PC (obvious to us, but not to new purchasers) but you ended the advert wanting to know what the product was that could do all that.

Roger.

[adambyte]

Yeah, so it's kinda like that saying, "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

And though this may work for a company that is not seen as different usually, if Apple tried to pull it off, people would not only hate it, but might shrug off Macs in the process.

[genghiscohen]

Note that those ads started airing during the Xmas shopping season. So most of the folks who were suckered... er, convinced by those ads were not buying a Dell for themselves (And probably know zero about computers). They were buying them for their kids, nephews & nieces, etc.
I wonder how many people got Dells under their Xmas tree and tried to exchange them for Macs...

[Matrix Agent]

I wonder how many parents thought that Dells were so cool, that there kids would be as fanatical as Steven about them?

Some poor kid who wanted a sleek iBook problably got some black monolith dell tower with a 15' screen, with commodity parts. It's no conincidence that dell has the best service team in the industry......


Oh yeah, I actually do have an elf hat, i'm going to go see if i can up a pic of it.

[Matrix Agent]

A quick search on google just revealed to me the following facts:

There is no specialized sections for dell searches, as there are for macs (google.com/mac)

There are no Dell fan clubs. But there are plenty of sites on how to fix the fan in your Dell