Case Study: “Mac vs. PC” Advertisement Campaign
Case study done by Hannah Drobits, Sam Morris, and Elan Fingles.
Introduction
In May 2006, the infamous MAC vs. PC campaign was constituted by Apple Inc. The series of commercials and advertisements were entitled “Get a Mac”, which contained 66 commercials aired on TV all arguing one main point: that a MAC is better than a PC. The campaign features actors Justin Long, who represents the “MAC”, and John Hodgeman, who plays the role of the “PC”. The two famous actors personify the computers they portray as well as resemble the two founding creators of both companies, a chubbier Bill Gates (for Microsoft) and a younger Steve Jobs (for Apple). Long is the young, better looking, easy going character that is supposed to represent MAC products as being easier to use and much more user friendly. Hodgeman is seen in this commercial as being very dorky looking, up tight, with an overall boring appearance. Apple created this campaign in order to raise sales and take out the biggest competitor they have, Microsoft.
Planning
To create this advertising campaign, the advertiser (Apple Inc.) worked very closely alongside its advertising agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day. The close-working included Lee Clow, the creative director of the entire campaign, flying from Los Angeles to Cupertino weekly to meet up with Steve Jobs to discuss their objectives and opinions on Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” advertisement campaign (Elmer-DeWitt, 2009). Clow was not a stranger to Jobs, and they actually first started working together during the 1980s, when Clow helped release Apple’s advertisements highlighting the newly released Macintosh computer. Also, Clow assisted the company again in 1997, with its “Think Different” ad campaign, officially introducing the famous iMac laptop into the technology world (Leonard, 2009). According to TNS Media Intelligence, Apple ended up spending $264 million on television ads alone in the 2006, the starting year of its campaign.
Execution
As well as airing in the United States, this advertisement campaign was also seen overseas, such as by audiences in Japan, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. For most of these countries, Apple decided to modify the characters and content within these commercials in order to reflect that specific countries culture as well as to avoid being offensive to their beliefs/traditions. An example of this change in the campaign to reach the different overseas markets was the casting change in the UK advertisements, switching out John Hodgeman and Justin Long with David Mitchell and Robert Webb, two moderately famous British television personalities who have their own sitcom in Britain called “Peep Show” (Fowler, Steinberg, Patrick, 2007). However, after these advertisements starting airing overseas in places such as the UK and Japan, respect for the Apple brand fell almost immediately. “According to a YouGov daily survey of 2,000 people, perceptions of the Apple brand, measured on a scale of 1 to 100, fell to 8 from 14 in the five days after the ads first appeared.” (Fowler, Steinberg, Patrick, 2007). The main goal of Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” campaign was to portray owning a Mac as the “cool” and “hip” thing to do over owning a PC computer, in a light-hearted, comedic way.
Research Conducted by the Company
When picking the starring actors in this campaign, there is a clear depiction on who Apple is trying to reach in its audience. The Microsoft brand is represented by John Hodgeman of The Daily Show, and the Apple brand is represented by Justin Long from the hit comedy movie entitled “Dodge Ball”. Hodgeman is constantly portrayed as being a typical “nerd” who looks disheveled and confused. Long however is portrayed as a “hip” young adult who is into things such as blogging and staying in touch with social media. In these commercials, Long is also always dressed casually as well as having an easy-going personality. Renee C. Quinn, a journalist on IPWatchog with a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University mentions that Long’s look, “…lends to the Apple “brand” of being user friendly, easy-going and innovative not to mention fun to explore with options such as iTunes, iPhotos and iLife.” When searching for someone to represent their brand to billions of people globally, they needed to find someone who was easy to relate to and someone that fit the profile of their target audience. Long qualified as fulfilling both of those tasks by having a moderate, conversational tone as well as being a young, white male who despite given his ethnicity and age, can actually appeal to a broader range of the population due to how approachable he comes off as. Apple’s target audience is extremely broad, and could best be described as the young adult to around retirement age, all ethnicities, both genders, as well as a wide range of economic statuses due to Apple having some products that are significantly cheaper than others (ie. 16GB iPhone 5C is $99 compared to its 32GB counterpart priced at $199).
Retrieval and Review Collateral
The success of an ad campaign is often measured by its longevity. According to Mac World, “if a campaign runs for a long time, it is successful.” Which leads one to believe that because this campaign lasted quite a long time, it was definitely a success. Beginning in May of 2006, and ending in 2010, the campaign consisted of a whopping 66 commercials. It would hard to conclude that the success of Apple during this period happened by chance. These commercials aired during a time of tremendous growth in Mac sales. The Cupertino Kids reported a 12% increase year after year after the start of this campaign, resulting in a 39% increase in overall sales by the end of the 2006-year. Each “episode” covered a difference that existed between the two tech giants. Where PC’s lacked in one area, Apple would show where they are adequate in the same area. Some of the major points that Apple made about PC’s include that they are extremely prone to crashing, catching virus’, are only good for business related work, used by older, less “hip” men, lacks simplicity, and is known to frustrate its customers. Additionally, according to IDC, a technology industry research firm, as a result of this campaign launched by Apple, their share of the computer desktop market in the United States has more than doubled. IDC also reported that Apple’s stock price has risen by 142 percent since 2006, when the advertisements were first released.
Evaluation
A campaign that screams such bold statements is sure to start an internet swirl of feedback. Without much surprise, Apple “fanboys” loved the string of commercials presenting the superiority of the Mac. On the contrary, PC users stated their case where they believed Apple was egregiously wrong. “There are other people whom the ads could have the opposite of a desired effect on. Some people don’t want overbearing statements such as ‘Macs are better at like stuff’ without some sort of backing” (Richard). One of most interesting ads entitled, “Meant for Work,” caused a great deal of stir out of all the 66 total ads when it was released. It shows the PC covered in stickers. The PC is complaining about how he just wanted to do some spreadsheets, work with employers, and do business things but these “kids” happened. Kids have these wild imaginations, blogs, movies, and pictures they like doing. These activities have been driving him crazy and put him into “sleep mode.” Interestingly enough, once Microsoft released that they would no longer be providing support for Windows XP, Forbes released the article, “Bring Back Apple’s Mac Vs. PC Ads Since Windows XP Isn’t Supported”. Overall, the media certainly liked this campaign and thought the ads were positive and effective for Apple. These ads certainly did lead to increasing sales, Apple receiving several accolades, as well as cementing a negative stereotype towards PC’s for all of the viewers.
Personal Evaluation/Other Campaigns
PC’s are even more susceptible to viruses and problems now because of the drop of support. In addition people will now be looking for different types of platforms, such as Mac’s, which will increase Apple’s sales and boost business for them as well; certainly not what Microsoft was hoping for. Years and years later Microsoft struck back very similarly with their strategy in their Windows Tablet vs. iPad commercial. These commercials actually turned out to be quite hilarious and ironic. It starts off with Siri saying, “Oh no here we go again” referring “past” commercials from the original “Get-a-Mac” campaign. The entire Microsoft campaign is a comparison between the two tablets and what they can do. Microsoft points out all things their Windows tablet can do and the features it has that the iPad does not such as its USB drive, snapping on keyboard, as well as its significantly lower price. “Less talking, More Doing” it ends with. The Apple vs. Microsoft battle has existed for years with each company always taking shots at each other. Apple has been known to throw many witty comments into their World Wide Developer Conference Keynotes. Even taking shots at a specific time during a Microsoft presentation when their demo tablet failed to work. These two companies are always thought of as enemies and opposites: consistently battling each other in all individual technology markets with their products. There is great irony in this however. Although Steve Jobs has passed, him and Bill Gates were known to have an incredible relationship, and were great friends during all of the feuds. Another similar campaign to this was also the DirectTV vs. Dish Network, where DirectTV would also describe how they were superior to Dish in each one of their commercials.
Retaliation
Additionally, countless amounts of parodies have been made which attributes to the success of the ad campaign, including the triggering of the “I’m a PC” Microsoft campaign. In these Microsoft tried to disprove everything Apple stated in their commercials by showing all kinds of different people stating that they are a “PC.” It is however difficult to say whether the ads worked or not. Studies have shown that most people do not actually know if they are persuaded by an advertisement because so much of it is done psychologically. Therefore for one to say the ad did not work on them is not always a completely valid statement. This can work both ways. However, often someone says that something worked for them, then it most likely did. Their sales showed a finite increase so to claim it did not work would be difficult. People often think there is no such thing as bad publicity, so even if this did attract much negative attention, it still attracted a great deal of it. This “attention” (whether positive or negative) Apple used to their advantage and attribute to their immense success today.
References
DeWitt, P. (2009, August 30). Mac vs. PC: Inside the ad wars. Fortune Mac vs PC Inside the adwars Comments. Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://fortune.com/2009/08/30/mac-vs-pc-inside-the-ad-wars/
Garner, B. (2009, December 14). Apple named ‘Brand of the Decade’ by Adweek. Apple named ‘Brand of the Decade’ by Adweek. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/12/14/apple_named_brand_of_the_decade_by_adweek.html
Fowler, G., Steinberg, B., & Patrick, A. O. (2007, March 1). Mac and PC’s Overseas Adventures. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB117271641509622894
Leonard, D. (2009, August 29). Hey, PC, Who Taught You to Fight Back?. The New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/business/media/30ad.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Jones, C. (2014, April 14). Bring Back Apple’s Mac Vs. PC Ads Since Windows XP Isn’t Supported. Forbes. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2014/04/14/bring-back-apples-mac-vs-pc-ads-since-windows-xp-isnt-supported/
Quinn, R. C. (2009, December 1). Mac vs. PC: A Simplistic Yet Effective Marketing Strategy.IPWatchdogcom Patents Patent Law Mac vs PC A Simplistic Yet Effective Marketing Strategy Comments. Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/12/01/mac-vs-pc-a-simplistic-yet-effective-marketing-strategy/id=7531/
Rhoads, K. (2007, January 10). Get-a-Mac Campaign Analysis. . Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.workingpsychology.com/download_folder/GAM_Campaign_Analysis.pdf