Can Your Network Do That?
Marketing wars. The concept is nothing new. Two companies who have competing products or services often turn to marketing to get what marketing guru's call "mind share". And, unless you have been living in a completely disconnected state from society for the past three weeks or so, you know that Verizon has launched some pretty hard hitting adds against AT&T and their network. My guess is these ads have been pretty effective, because AT&T is now suing Verizon claiming that the ads are deceptive.
I assumed it was only a matter of time before AT&T shot back at Verizon with an ad of their own, and they did. Sort of. AT&T's ad (which you can see below) featured Luke Wilson and some lame magnet board that listed all of the advantages that AT&T has over Verizon. I must say... after I saw the ad for the first time, I said (out loud): "Really? That's the best you could do?" It was just... bad.
So here's the scorecard at this point.
Verizon: The most effective marketing campaigns the company has ever had
The hottest phone of the year.
AT&T: Luke Wilson
Magnets
But here's the thing, something that AT&T has that they didn't mention in their ad... is the iPhone; And the iPhone has Apple, who you could argue has had some of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent memory. And, in my brain... I imagine an internal conversation at Apple going something like this.
Marketing Genius 1: They have Luke Wilson. Luke Wilson... and a magnet board.
Marketing Genius 2: Seriously?
Marketing Genius 1: We have exclusivity for the next six months. We've got to do something.
Behold. The two Apple ads that do what Luke Wilson and his magnet board could not.
Apple iPhone Ad - What Time's The Movie? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.
Apple iPhone Ad - Did You See My Email? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.
Marketing War, commence.
Kyle Ankney
Reader Comments (3)
God, when will I see a non-biased post?
Most articles (everywhere) have a bit of bias; it wasn't too bad in this one though.
This marketing war upsets me because with every commercial, I'm more convinced Verizon will not be getting an iPhone next year.