Apple had debuted an new advertisement for Apple Watch Series 4 focused on the freedom afforded by cellular connectivity.
Now you have the freedom to go with just your watch. – Apple Inc.
In the ad, a woman is running on a street and then cross country. It is a windy day and the wind picks her up and blows her into the sky. The ad then transfers to aerial acrobatics — skydiving without a parachute — until the woman dives into what looks like an Austrian lake unharmed. Upon surfacing, she receives a phone call, which she declines in favor of taking in the view and then swimming to shore.
The song featured in the ad is “Breathe” by Son Lux.
MacDailyNews Take: This is a very nice ad that certainly highlights that you can go anywhere with just your cellular-capable Apple Watch.
Dumb.
You describe yourself so beautifully, Knut.
Yes, sounds like you are.
When I watch the incredibly dumb ads on TV with no message no intelligence no heart but so “cool” your name all the sudden makes sense.
Reminds me of this old Windows XP ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4RUS23iLls
Mac’s 35th Anniversary
Mac Apple second largest product. Makes more than Watch. TV, Beats, HomePod COMBINED.
Yet NO AD. Not even cheap web ads. No Anniversary Video. No interview or comment from Ahrendts or Schiller (Retail and Marketing). No store promotion like “this month 10% off Macs if you have an iPhone”. No even a freaking banner on their website. Just a tweet from Cook.
35th anniversary, if they played it up they could have multiplied their PR gain from write ups from some papers and hundreds of blogs : “Hey it’s the Mac’s 35th! The GUI that changed the world ” etc. BTW: Comments from Ahrendts or Schiller would have cost Apple nothing.
But NOPE, Mac which probably makes billions more than Watch doesn’t warrant anything but a tweet.
With the Stock Down 30%. iPhone sales Down.
they don’t want to sell their second biggest product Mac when they actually have new Macbook Airs and Minis.
Sorry I just don’t get this.
Stupid ad, and brilliant comment. How I long for the old I’m a PC ads. They were when Apple actually understood the value of gaining new customers when you only hold a tiny fraction of the market. Apple still only hold a tiny fraction of the market in PCs yet it does not lift a finger to try to increase sales. Even as its stock goes through the floor. I guess Tim Cook and company decided “Computers are not cool anymore” and there is no doubt Apple is all about “cool”. That is the reason for pathetic ads like the Watch ad and all the ads with urban hipsters dancing for no particular reason.
It is almost criminal for a public company with such a good product and about 10% market share and tons of money to ignore its core product so completely. Change that – it is criminal.
“Sorry I don’t get this”
what I’m referring to not getting is why Apple advertises everything else with seemingly endless streams of ads yet can’t be bothered with their second biggest product Mac.
Well, I don’t really know, Davewrite. I do not have insight into Apple’s advertising planning and budgeting. But I would hazard a guess that Apple has a data-driven process for deciding what and when to advertise products. It is entirely possible that Apple has found from past campaigns that spending money on Mac advertisements either failed to sufficiently stimulate Mac sales, or that Apple received a better cost/benefit from spending ad dollars on other products and services.
Apple, like other [successful] corporations, does not spend money based on gut feel. They have discovered what works by collecting data over years and decades. That does not mean that a company should not revisit its thinking from time to time. It may make sense to throw up a Mac/MBP advertisement from time to time just to remind people of how nice they look.
” has found from past campaigns that spending money on Mac advertisements either failed”
you say “SPENDING MONEY… ”
I said very clearly : “Comments from Ahrendts or Schiller would have cost Apple nothing.”
Schiller head of marketing couldn’t have given an interview? To TechCrunch, FastCompany, Wired or something? The reporters wouldn’t have RUSHED to Cupertino without Schiller having to walk out his office? Or Ahrendts? Or Federighi or Ive or Ternus?
An Anniversary Video or Ads or a BANNER placed on their own website or distributed to blogs etc, would have cost them peanuts to produce. Shoot they could put them on Apple Channel on YouTube. WebAds are also very cheap, tiny companies selling $1 games do it.
They could sell ANNIVERSARY T-SHIRTS at the stores. Give a few to the press as well !
They could have sent out an EMAIL press release ! (A press release can be package containing an announcement, images, even short recorded videos etc for the press to use for write ups. Images could be like ‘private unseen photo of Steve Jobs with early Mac team’ , info on making the new Mac mini etc. Many blogs like releases as they contain all the info for them to write an article ) Again cost them virtually nothing.
I could give you one thousand other examples.
I use to work for marketing. I did press releases, ads, promotions etc. TINY TINY companies with tiny budgets compared to Apple could do those things I suggested.
STEVE JOBS, one of the greatest marketing persons who ever lived, ran average out to ONE NEW MAC AD EVERY MONTH (66 DIFFERENT Mac PC guy Ads in 4 years) which only petered out when Cook took over.
So if Mac advertising doesn’t work why did Jobs do it ?
Ok, ok if by some bizarre reasons TV ads are now too expensive than those other things I mentioned: announcements, interviews, a banner on their website, press releases etc costs them almost zero. (Apple years back announced they hired an extra 500 internal Ad staff).
Does this show ‘Data Driven’ planning or just DISARRAY and poor marketing ?
I’m not saying Apple is a disaster all through but it does seem Apple today is run by individuals who promote their own interests and there seems not to be much backing for the Mac in spite of the fact it’s their second biggest product. You can see from their treatment of updates, the Mac App store (developers continually complain of poor support etc).
oh I didn’t even mention head designer IVE.
completely forgot him because he has hardly mentioned Mac, Apple’s second biggest product, in years.
Out of the dozens of interviews he gave on the Campus (furniture, glass, etc), the trees in the Apple store, Watch Bands, the Coffee TableBook, the Christmas trees, the Diamond Ring, etc etc. you can’t find one on the Mac….
Is that somehow “data driven” strategy as well… ?
or is it more like what I said “it does seem Apple today is run by individuals who promote their own interests”.
“she receives a phone call, which she declines in favor of taking in the view ”
Really? Is that it? Too much precious ad time spent on silly acrobats and fizzled out in the end?
Fire this ad agency.
And fire whoever in Apple who approved this.
Yes, it’s dumb, but someone apparently thought it’s a cool punchline.
Apple used to produce much cleverer ads with actual impact. Those days are gone. Poverty dulls the wit. Sigh….
My point exactly.
Aspirational bullshit!
Imaginative at least.
Now if only cellular existed everywhere so one could take advantage of such things.
Not sure if the lake and mountains at the end are supposed to represent the U.S., but if it’s a western U.S. national park it’s likely that cell reception there, like most rural areas of the U.S., is very poor… if it exists at all.
Taking into consideration the limits of cellular technology and the mountainous environment of the area portrayed, I’d be surprised if it were different anywhere else in the world.
But I still have to own an iPhone with this watch?
pretty sure that would trigger the fall sensor.