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

BlingBling 3k12

Somewhere... dunno though
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!
 
Wow, everybody hates him, but people buy their computers. Interesting. Apparently Apple should start a campaign called "Think Annoyance."
 
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.
 
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.
 
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...
;)
 
I wonder how many parents thought that Dells were so cool, that there kids would be as fanatical as Steven about them?:D

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......:p


Oh yeah, I actually do have an elf hat, i'm going to go see if i can up a pic of it.
 
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:D
 
Fujitsu Siemens who makes a flatpanel fanless all-in-one will ask huge money for it. If Apple wants sell their computers they have to stay selling fanless computers. (I'm the only guy defending)
I have such white noicy Optiplex for huge programming tasks and speechtechnology and it sound isn't very musical.
 
roger is right.

i remember one commercial that i thought was great. i watched it 5-6 times before i even bothered to figure out who it was for. and now that i haven't seen it in a few months, i can't remember who it was for again.

but i bet everyone will know who did "zoom zoom" years from now.
I also bet everyone knows "what's in your pocket?"

I can still tell you "where's the beef" and i have pretty vivid memories of speedy alkaseltzer.

apple has always had terrible tv commercials for everything but the imac. clever yes, but good in terms of advertising returns - no. this is one area apple normally thinks just a little too differently in.

i will bet that steve sold a lot more computers for xmas than just dells, btw.
 
It has a floppy in the front with it's name Fujitsu-Siemens, and the screen is not complete because of some publicity. This was in the past a realistic candidate 4 the new iMac. It is powered by a 1ghz Pentium III and has no fan.
 
Ed, I have a vivid picture of the "zoom-zoom" kid, but I couldn't tell you for sure which brand of car he's huckstering. And good ol' Clara with "Where's the beef?" is the same. Was it Burger King?
(Who cares?)
I do remember the "1984" Apple ads, but I didn't get a Mac until 1996. (But then, I didn't get any computer until 1996. ;))
Everyone should have a strong distrust of all advertizing claims. At least anyone with more brains than a clam. Hell, I don't even trust Steve Jobs! (And BTW, his keynotes speeches are definitely a form of advertizing.)
I have never seen an ad campaign that appeals to our intelligence, or even our common sense. IMHO, advertizing folks are lower than even lawyers and developers.
:p
 
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