“School teacher George Masters has the marketing world abuzz with a homemade ad for Apple Computer’s iPod that is rapidly ‘going viral.’ To some experts, Masters’ ad heralds the future of advertising. Homemade ads will play a big part in marketing, just like blogging is shaking up the news,” Leander Kahney writes for Wired News.
“Masters’ 60-second animated ad features flying iPods, pulsing hearts and swirling ’70s psychedelia. It’s set to the beat of ‘Tiny Machine’ by ’80s pop band the Darling Buds. Masters quietly posted the spot to his site a few weeks ago. It received moderate traffic until it was picked up by several blogs last week. In a matter of days, the ad has been watched more than 37,000 times, and is making the rounds on blogs and e-mail,” Kahney writes.
Kahney writes, “The ad has caught the attention of marketers, who praise its professional production values and say it’s one of the first “pure” advertisements seen on the internet. Though homemade ads are nothing new, most are parodies, protests or political commentaries,” Kahney writes. “Bruce Rubel, a vice president at New York PR agency CooperKatz and author of the Micro Persuasion web log, said evangelistic customers like Masters will increasingly play a role in marketing. ‘It’s a sign that consumers want to have a role in promoting a product they love,’ he said. ‘There’s a real trend toward consumer-generated media. People are creating news, they’re blogging. People will create marketing as well. This guy is a great example.'”
“‘It’s customer evangelism,’ he added. ‘It’s not going to happen for every company, only those with a passion. The Mac platform, and the iPod, have created a core following, a customer passion. People want to spread the love.’ He added, ‘The question is, what will the marketers do? Some will embrace it but some will shun it…. I hope (Masters) gets a job in Apple’s marketing department. He certainly deserves it. But I’m surprised Apple hasn’t shut it down. They can be very persnickety about their brand and trademarks,'” Kahney writes.
Full article here.
Links to the ad (QuickTime required) here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple should hold ‘The $1,000,000 Apple Macintosh Ad Contest’ – July 24, 2003
Wow! A damn nice video. It really is in the ‘vein’ of the iPod ads on TV.
Great job George.
That is REALLY good. If Apple didn’t have such a stong brand marketing image I would be upset if they didn’t jump on it and make the auther a milionaire. I have to give it a 1 out of 10 chance of an Apple publication though.
Perhaps, just perhaps, they’ll show it after a little editing. I don’t think Apple would want their logo with colors. I know it’s jaded, but I think Steve-o is very sensitive about his white Apple logo now becoming the striped logo of old. (as good as it was)
The ad has a great soundtrack, well timed animation, wonderful use of color and simple lines. I think Apple would also edit the part where the player comes apart. I don’t think Apple wants to encourage that. They might also edit the visual effects playing on the screen because the iPod doesn’t do that. They could replace that sequence with some games though.
Great ad! Award-winning stuff. I hope Apple jumps on it and plays it up as a fan-created ad. I expect nothing from Apple though. We’ll see. The author deserves heaps of credit. Someone get him a marketing job! He’s probably a very good teacher too, so offer him a part-time marketing job
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Awesome, we need to get him working on ads for OS X and Macs!
It would be quite foolish to shut down something that is a free and quite positive promotion for one of their products. They still haven’t shut down the black market sales of non-sanctioned Apple products like t-shirts with their logo on them on eBay and other web sites, so I doubt they’ll shut down this. Both are tons of free advertising for them.
What about music rights? That m&m guy got mad about some kid lipsyncing one of his songs in an Apple commercial. Wonder if this tiny machine was in on it or whether they are going to be asking for a piece of the pie.
Looks like someone is happy with their iPod Mini.
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I would like to know what software was used to make this ad..
It’s really great..
RePlay–Well it’s not an offiical televised commercial – it’s just some ‘home-made-video’. If any corporation adopts it, he applies it to a film festival of any sort, or it gets nominated for any awards and he accepts, then he has to start worrying about the music rights (I’d know, I’m working on my portfolio right now)
I think I might garageband my track :-p
Quite impressive. I agree with Knock Knock as far as some of the parts Apple would likely edit if they ever adopted the animation in an official Ad.
Considering Apple has not created any TV ads for the mini they could pick this up, who knows. Hopefully Apple will advertise the mini at some point. Note to Ralph it’s iPod mini, they even changed the name of the photo to a lower case “p” to match that same branding. No worries, just FYI.
Maybe I’ve been living under my iPod for the past few months
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Thanks!
gambit,
It’s similar to ‘proliferation’, which means to ‘increase or spread at a rapid rate’.
Thanks for clearing that up “fandango”, I was just about to give up on buying that iPod until Symantec Anti-Virus for the iPod is released.
Tommy,
lol. You’re welcome. BTW, McAfee’s Virex 7.5.1 is currently freely available to all .Mac subscribers. Just FYI.
The iPod mini renderings are very lame. What’s the point of the exploded view? It’s not even correct. The illustrated hearts aren’t drawn correctly and the “swirling ’70s psychedelia” demonstates a further lack of technical drawing skills. Award winning stuff? Not a chance. All in all a very “homemade” attempt.
Hey George, keep your day job or get some professional training and direction if you want to jump into “the arena.”
If you need some really good royalty-free music, .Mac account holders can access over 1.7GB of totally free music on your iDisk > Software > Members Only > Freeplay Music
There are many categories – go to http://www.freeplaymusic.com
But, they do have an odd “Terms of Use”…
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/licensing/termsofuse.php
…which I do not think most people understand. Such as…
If you are using Freeplay Music for:
1. Content to be included in an ASCAP or BMI licensed US broadcast (this excludes local-only TV and radio)
2. Feature Filmmaking
3. Private, Non-Commercial use (non revenue generating or associated)
4. Educational, Non-Commercial use
Then Freeplay’s musical compositions and recordings may be broadcast and/or copied, without fee. These reproduction rights (known as master synchronization rights) are absolutely FREE, and are granted in perpetuity.
If your use of Freeplay music is for:
1. Local, regional or non-ASCAP/BMI licensed national broadcast television use
2. Local, regional, or non-licensed national cable television use 3. All Radio use
4. Direct-to-Video, DVD, CD, CDR, DVDR or other, programming use
5. Non-broadcast multi-media use
6. Web site use
7. Game and toy use
8. Shareware use
9. Ring tone use
10. Religious use
Then Freeplay requires a signed license agreement and a license fee payment (in most cases) as described in the Freeplay Music Rate Card.
Now, try to negotiate wide variety of Terms of Use and licensing rights in a hundred countries and you can start to see the headaches of the iTunes legal department.
Damn it!! I did it again.. I posted too much good information in here.
In keeping with the MDN theme…
FIRST POST!!!
APPLE ROCKS!!!
MicroSucks!
…ahhh, all better. The balance has been restored.
Hey ‘critique’,
Fine. Let’s see what YOU can do…
Apple should jump all over this and make it part of their advertising. Its a great ad. Masters deserves some money.
Nice video. SHould be a cinch to translate for OS X — wiggly docks et al.
critique
The iPod mini renderings are very lame. What’s the point of the exploded view? It’s not even correct. The illustrated hearts aren’t drawn correctly and the “swirling ’70s psychedelia” demonstates a further lack of technical drawing skills. Award winning stuff? Not a chance. All in all a very “homemade” attempt.
Hey George, keep your day job or get some professional training and direction if you want to jump into “the arena.”
Hay critique, switch to decaf.
Hey TM,
That ‘Ogg and the cave men’ comment (for inventing ‘fire’ and ‘the wheel’)…
That *still* cracks me up. Thanx, again.
critique might be a brit living the Walter Mitty life.
George, I really liked it, I really did. But George…you changed Steve’s logo.
George, you’re fired.
Thanks fandango for the clarification!
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Tommy Boy � u so kewt
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This is a very cool ad! It’s still very much “Apple” in it’s style, yet it’s distinct. I like that it carves out an individual, recognizable ad style for the iPod mini. Apple needs to think about that a bit. Giving each of their products a similar yet distinct feel in their advertising could work very well for them.
Nice job. I don’t think I’d go as far as saying it was award winning, but it was pretty cool.
I’ve said before, I think Apple should have a contest where the task is for amateurs to build a Mac OS X commercial on their Macs using Apple software. The winner gets a boatload of Apple products and Apple gets a cheap ad, but also it would show what you can do with your Mac.
amazing. good song, too. what is it?
Critique,
A bit harsh aren’t you. This work is pretty damn good as a first pass comp. Hell… it could even be a 3rd rev. What you have to realize is that the ads that Apple come up with go through 50 or more revision changes and are criticized by a group of Creative and Art Directors. they also cost $$$. Give this piece a few more iterations and it would look pretty damn professional. I give it a B+.
Chill.
I believe Apple could put this add on TV with a subscript at the end, “made by a Mac fan on his Macintosh computer in his spare time for fun.”
Coolkamio,
If you go to his web site, http://www.georgemasters.com, it lists the information of what hardware and software he used to make it.
The following link will work
http://www.georgemasters.com
gRen:
A bit harsh, no. After all it’s a critique. It’s a good amateur ad. It should be viewed as what it is. An intriguing attempt at showing a consumer’s exuberance for a product. But to say it’s great, this guy deserves a job in Apple’s Marketing department and Apple should run it is just wrong. This spot wouldn’t make it thru Apple’s focus groups. It’s not creative (the 60’s theme), lacks a focus and more importantly violates too much of Apple’s branding strategy. Granted with some professional marketing insight and animation direction, his “comp” could be improved upon but it certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near “Cleo” material which is the level of Apple’s advertising.
For even more of critiques thoughts on art, check him out at http://maddox.xmission.com/irule.html
While I really like the ad, i think he did a wonderful job, I don’t think it’s up to apple standards. I think it’s really great for anything other than apple, but what apple sells isn’t the ipod, it’s the lifestyle, and that is reflected in all of apple’s marketing.
If you look at the current ads now, they don’t even show the ipod. The show anonymous people enjoying using their ipod. Plus they leave it a blank canvass so you can imagine yourself freed the way these dancers are.
I think it’s a really great ad, and it should be commended. But i think that it’s a bit bullish to say that apple should use and promote this ad. It’s not selling the same thing that apple. Products are just products, but lifestyles last forever.
Apple does not sell product, but experience with it and lifestyle.
Great ad!
Apple doesn’t need to pick up on this – its all being done for them.. we’re all watching it aren’t we? And we’ll tell others. And it’ll get more viewers than they could ever get putting it on television.
I think they owe this guy one though..
rogozhin
For even more of critiques thoughts on art, check him out at http://maddox.xmission.com/irule.html
Excellent! Thanks for a good laugh!
fandango
Hey TM,
That ‘Ogg and the cave men’ comment (for inventing ‘fire’ and ‘the wheel’)…
That *still* cracks me up. Thanx, again.
Sure thing.
It’s really sad that it takes a home video to make the perfect iPod mini commerical. Apple commericals are nothing but “inside jokes” that only Mac and iPod users understand. That ad was a beautiful piece of work.