Posts Tagged: motorola

advertising / android / iPad / observatory / tablets / technology — 21 Comments
1
Feb 11

Motorola saves us from the evil Apple

Some ads fail the old-fashioned way. They lack the traditional ingredients of creative thinking and/or smart strategy.

Other ads lose all restraint and fail on a higher level. They not only lack the right ingredients, they wrap their message in a grand idealistic vision, and pretend it is their driving motivation.

Congratulations,  Motorola, for taking it to Level 2.

After the ominous music and titles describing a totalitarian state, we’re told that because Motorola’s tablet is here, “it’s time to live a free life.” Holy cow, that’s thick.

Of course it’s not hard to understand why Motorola would go this route. Like everyone else jumping on the tablet bandwagon, they officially fall in the “follower” category. They face a most formidable competitor who has more than a full year head start. Plus, they aren’t exactly unique. They belong to a fleet of Android tablets coming to save us from the mass delusion that has led us to false happiness.

Motorola (and some of the others) actually does have certain advantages over iPad, at least in the hardware department. There are a thousand creative ways they could have made that point if they had a little imagination. Instead they chose to reveal these advantages by putting themselves on a pedestal, proclaiming themselves to be the hero, appointing themselves the defender of freedom.

This is offensive in the sense that it is manipulative. It tries to get us nodding our heads — and handing over our cash — by hijacking one of our most treasured values. Basically, Motorola is saying that if you love liberty, you should buy their product.

It’s not only offensive, it’s a rip-off of others’ offensive strategies. You’ll recall that after Apple banned Flash, Adobe proclaimed itself the champion of freedom. And last year Google depicted Apple as the evil anti-choice entity at their I/O Conference.

I don’t imagine a lot of people will be gathering in town square to rally for the heroic Motorola.

Never mind that their logic is absurd. They dismiss the fact that throughout history, Apple has been the one company who gave us choice when the big guys dictated the standards. Mac was the pesky upstart against the PC. iPod and iTunes forced the big record companies to change their evil ways. iPhone went up against the monoliths who controlled mobile communications. iPad finally gave us another choice vs. the PC companies’ netbooks and ill-conceived tablets. If anyone can claim to be the liberator, it’s Apple. Fortunately, Apple has the good sense to not to pose as the defender of humanity’s most precious value.

Motorola’s implication is that Apple is out for itself, while they (Motorola) are the ones fighting for the public good. Freedom of choice, with no restrictions. In truth, every moneymaking venture on earth is protective of its critical assets. Even Motorola. They protect what makes them unique, or fade into obscurity. Personally, I’m still fuming that Coca-Cola won’t reveal their secret formula. How dare they not give me the freedom to tweak the recipe so it’s perfect for my tastes.

I find the whole good vs. evil argument to be as toxic in marketing as it is in politics. Yet there will always be individuals and companies who choose this path. But we’re not talking politics here. When people buy a phone or tablet, they’re not voting for good or evil. They’re simply picking the device they like best.

We all know that Apple is controlling. Time after time, they explain why they are controlling. They take action to ensure that their customers get the Apple-quality experience they’re looking for. We also know that if we find Apple’s product philosophy so unsettling, we can simply go out and buy a competitor’s device. Like Motorola’s.

Motorola’s “it’s time to be free” ad is rumored to be running on the Super Bowl this weekend. No one needs to be reminded that this is the same venue where Apple ran the legendary 1984 commercial that Motorola is referencing. Whereas Apple’s ad stood head and shoulders above all the other ads of its time, Motorola’s ad will simply be one of the bunch. Very possibly, much like their tablet.

advertising / android / app store / creative / google / observatory / tablets / technology — 7 Comments
21
Dec 10

Motorola, iPad & the theory of evolution

I love it when technology companies talk tough. Add Motorola to the list of contenders who brazenly proclaim that they can make iPad look silly.

This video is Motorola’s way to help build the excitement leading up to the grand unveiling of their mysterious tablet-to-come at CES.

Does it work? Well, as always, that depends on who you are. I’m sure there are people in the world who look at this video and think, “Wow, cool, I wonder what they have up their sleeve.” As a teaser for the event, that’s all they can ask for. So I’ll give them the honorary G.W. Bush “Mission Accomplished” medal for that.

However, as our friend W. discovered, things aren’t always what they seem. At some point, Motorola has to produce a working tablet that really does make you want to move beyond iPad — or they’re going to look laughable for making the claim.

Let’s just pause for a moment to consider the reality:

One year ago at CES, when everyone knew Apple was about to revolutionize the tablet category, companies fell over themselves trying to beat Apple to the punch. Not only did they know what Steve Jobs had up his sleeve, it was pretty obvious Apple was going to build upon the technology already established in iPhone. Steve Ballmer stood up during the keynote waving the Microsoft/HP tablet prototype, which was never heard from again.

Now, after all this time, with Apple owning the lion’s share of the tablet market and still no real competition in sight, Motorola will now “evolve” beyond iPad?

Pardon my lack of faith, but it’s a bit far-fetched.

The technique used in the video is to establish a sense of humor by first bashing “tablets” that have been around for eons (Egyptian Hieroglyphic Tablet, 10 Commandments Tablet, Rosetta Stone, Mayan Engraved Tablet), and then apply the same humor to iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab before leaving us with a tease about Motorola’s higher evolution.

Dismissing iPhone, the title says “It’s like a giant iPhone, but … it’s like a giant iPhone.” Others have made this argument, and honestly it’s one of the most brain-dead arguments there is. iPad really is a giant iPhone (minus the phone), and that’s exactly what it needs to be. Apple already had the magic combination with iOS, multi-touch and the App Store. A faster processor and bigger screen were the only missing ingredients.

The video dismisses the Galaxy Tab by saying, “Android OS, but Android OS … for a phone.” Never mind that Motorola’s tablet will run on a tablet-optimized Android OS, just as iPad runs on an iPad-optimized version of iOS. By their own logic, Motorola’s “evolved” tablet will be nothing more than a giant Android phone.

The spot ends with the Motorola logo, at which time a bee enters the picture. It’s jarring enough that a number of YouTube commenters thought the bee-buzz sounded like a certain human emission. In theory, we’ll soon find out what the bee is doing there in the first place.

Then again, maybe that bee was never intended to be there at all, like the fly that got into Seth Brundle’s teleportation machine. Be afraid. Be very afraid…

advertising / creative / strategy — 11 Comments
7
Dec 09

Droid plays the testosterone card

[Sorry, the commercial referenced here has disappeared from YouTube]

Enough of the teasers. The first real ad in the Droid assault is now among us. And assault turns out to be a pretty good descriptor — because everything about this spot is amped to extremes, from strategy and script to images and editing.

What this effort probably needed most, however, was some adult supervision.

Every agency wants to start with the most unexpected, out-there ideas. Nothing’s taboo. The theory is that you can always pull creative back, but you can’t amplify something that isn’t there. But then you start developing. And when you’re about to enter the world’s hottest category, battling the much-loved iPhone, risking market share and millions of dollars, you’d think that some responsible person might have politely raised a hand and said: “are you nuts?”

It’s as if the agency, followed by Verizon, Google and Motorola, developed this ad in an alternate reality —  where design doesn’t matter, women want to be men and writers are paid by the adjective. What we get is a whole fleet of runaway trains.

It’s a male-only strategy in a category that’s 50% female. It’s a spot that attacks iPhone for the very reason it’s succeeded — great design. It’s a script that is so desperately cool, it’s juvenile. Worst of all, it’s a launch that presents a smartphone without any smart — offering no benefit other than speed. In that sense, it’s actually less of an ad than the teaser was.

I’m all for chipping away at iPhone’s armor. But allowing your inner pubescent to attack iPhone as “a tiara-wearing, digitally clueless beauty queen” or “a precious porcelain figurine of a phone” reveals a disturbing cluelessness.

It’s hard to imagine any woman outside of the WWE who’d appreciate this ultra-male tone. At the DroidDoes.com website, the slide continues: we get mechanical design presented by a flesh-and-blood android so smarmy, you want to slap him. (Extra points for integration!)

The good news for Droid is, misguided marketing isn’t always fatal. Maybe the device will sell well by its own merits and the superiority of the Verizon network. Who knows, maybe Droid will ultimately cut through iPhone’s lead “like a circular saw through a ripe banana.”

advertising / creative / naming — 8 Comments
3
Nov 09

I’ve got a crush on Cliq

Just when I thought I was losing my ability to love, comes this spot for Motorola’s new smartphone, the Cliq. Or is it the “Motorola Cliq with Motoblur”? Well, no matter how many syllables they throw my way, I’m sticking to my guns: I love this commercial.

The Cliq’s special power is that it merges contact lists, photos and social networking — Facebook, MySpace and Twitter — into one visual display. Not a bad concept for a phone. And a terrifically good concept for an ad.

In this spot, our hero stands alone in a desolate landscape with his Cliq. We then see his entire, mad, out-of-control world of contacts rushing to meet him — while he’s able to focus on the one contact he’s most interested in at the moment. The girl.

The idea is simple. But everyone who’s tried to turn a simple idea into something special knows how impossible it can be. In this case, they did everything perfectly. The acting is understated and natural. No one tries too hard (except for the wild hordes, but that’s what hordes are supposed to do). The girl gets one damn word, and it’s one of the most charming bits of dialog I’ve ever seen. It’s all in the body language.

But most of the magic is in the production. This could have been filmed a hundred different ways: in a different landscape, with different kinds of people, with different degrees of energy. And the editing could have gone a hundred ways as well. What we get is a frantic cast of thousands, dangerously fun action, with truly hilarious choices in depicting our hero’s “social network.” There’s an artful balance of high energy and dead quiet.

And, lest we forget, every bit of this action is devoted to delivering on the concept. Cliq’s reason for being is hard to miss.

Now let’s return to reality. iPhone became a juggernaut because it raised the bar by an order of magnitude. It’s hard to imagine any company outdoing iPhone by the same margin anytime soon. So the immediate goal is to simply take some wind out of iPhone’s sails. It’s too early to tell if Cliq is the phone to do that, or if future ads will be as good as this one. But I can’t watch this spot enough times. A big thank-you to everyone involved. (If anyone has the credits, please let me know.)