“For those who watched the Academy Awards Sunday night, Apple ran a made-for-the-Oscars TV teaser for its iPhone. Named ‘Hello,’ it simply does a 30-second history of great movie actors answering the phone in the style of an Oscar retrospective, and ends with an iPhone shot promising a June introduction,” Carl Howe writes for Balckfriars’ Marketing.
“It was nice awareness advertising, but the general blogosphere reaction is that it’s no 1984 ad. That said, the fact that Apple has started a demand generation campaign more than three months before the iPhone is available bodes well for my prediction that Apple will sell every one of these things they can make, despite its $500 price,” Howe writes.
Full article here.
“OK, the iPhone commercial Mac bloggers have been breathlessly anticipating finally aired, as promised, during the Academy Awards. Twice, by my count. It was fine, I suppose, done in the style of a made-for-the-Oscars film-clip compilation. 1984 it was not, however. It’s not likely to win any awards or be widely discussed, except perhaps by said bloggers, who have been poring over it frame by frame ever since,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt blogs or Business 2.0.
Full article here.
“Best Oscar Commercial? …The winner was Apple with its ‘Hello’ commercial, the first iPhone television ad. What separated it from other Apple launches was the element of surprise; the viewer didn’t know the ad’s product until the end, when the iPhone appeared. But it did so without showing the Apple logo and the iPhone name, the message being: You already know this phone’s name and the company that makes it. And they were right,” Scott Goldberg writes for Digital Media Wire.
Full article here.
Apple’s iPhone teaser ad “Hello” via YouTube:
See the “Hello” iPhone ad in higher quality via Apple.com: http://www.apple.com/iphone/hello/
Related article:
Apple airs iPhone teaser ad during Oscars – February 25, 2007
I think an apple tv ad would have been a little more appropriate. Or both.
Good commercial:yes
The best? No. That was the AMEX one IMHO.
Problem was, the 1984 commercial didn’t sell any Macs. Because no one knew WTF Apple was talking about.
This ad will sell phones. Because everyone know what “hello” is. In fact as far as I know hello was a word coined specifically for the telephone.
I counted it airing three times last night.
Nice and simple while paying respect to legendary actors on Oscar night. It just worked.
MDN’s “You already know this phone’s name and the company” take was right on the money.
Snore.
A product for a teeny-tiny fraction of the market. And a market that is fashion oriented and new product must come out every 3-6 months.
Where are the Apple COMPUTER ads???
Unlike the 1984 ad, there are going to be follow-ups for iPhone. This was simple– literally, a “hello” to the world beyond uber-geekdom. In time, they’re going to be as ubiquitous as iPod commercials, I’d bet.
wow, great headline and article…so what you’re saying is some people liked it and some people didn’t.
good job…very insightful.
Love the generic headline:
“Reactions to [Fill in blank] differ.”
It ranks up there with
“Experts disagree with [Fill in blank].”
Interesting. The Mac was introduced with “Hello World”, the iPhone with “Hello”. I think think is the next phase in the evolutions of the computing device – Mainframe, micro, PC, iPhone?
Very appropriate…fictional characters pushing a fictional product.
Just my $0.02
“Where are the Apple COMPUTER ads???”
Umm, have you not seen the “Get a Mac” ads that have been on everywhere for the last several months???
it was poorly timed, it came after a long segment and most people walked away from the TV relieved only to miss the beginning of the ad
nothing wrong with the ad per se, just poorly placed
And the Zune was introduced to “Hellno.”
BTW – The Apple logo did appear for a brief moment as the phone was spinning around.
Name one actor in that commercial (who’s still alive) that isn’t going to get and be seen with that phone when it comes out.
Betty Rubble doesn’t count.
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Any time you can get people writing and talking about your ad the next day it works, I’ve heard 3 people at the office asking if they saw the commercial.
It just works
Spot on, Dave.
And, there’s also the fact that people are showing other people the commercial online as a trivia thing for movie buffs. “Guess the actor” game, brought to you by Apple
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I’m disgusted. I can’t believe people were expecting 1984. I can’t believe people even think 1984 can be re-created.
Like Dave Mac said, the buzz generated is working well when it comes to the general public. It’s the blogosphere where I’m finding debate and people who claim to be underwhelmed.
Let me say this: my wife, who cares NADA about tech toys and such devices, was absolutely drooling over the iPhone after seeing that ad. We talked about it and decided it was the high-brow approach and clever use of famous film clips that did the trick. While not as “in your face” as the 1984 ad, this thing definitely did the triick and will pull people in who wouldn’t normally care about a tech toy.
In other words, a great ad!
I thought it would have been cool if the iPhone’s screen had the word “Hello” across its screen. – just like 84 Mac and 97 iMac…
Unless they didn’t want to misrepresent what the iPhone’s screen can actually do…
“But it did so without showing the Apple logo”
Uhhh, Scott Goldberg, I don’t know what ad you were watching, but the one I was watching had the Apple logo right in the middle of the screen at the end.
Am I crazy???
Although, as I wrote last night, there was no “iPhone” seen anywhere.
“It’s the blogosphere where I’m finding debate and people who claim to be underwhelmed.”
But, by even blogging about it, they are feeding into the fact that more and more people (who didn’t watch the Oscars) are now hearing about this dreadful ad… many including links to a YouTube clip or Apple’s site.
Thank you, blogers, for being so fickle!
You had me at hello.
Hello–Hell no.
I would have shown more of the phone–at least the name. Then again-I’m not subtle.
“Betty Rubble doesn’t count.”
Like hell she doesn’t.
Ever since she saw that iPhone she’s been bugging the crap out of me to get rid of our hollowed out goat horn and stone phone.
Bedrock is buzzing about the iPhone. It’s already been featured in The Daily Slab and on the The Happy Housewife Show.
Just because we’re cartoon folks doesn’t mean you should take us for granite.
do you know why this was a good commercial?
Because it had an idea, it was the essence of simplicity, it was entertaining, it complemented its media environment.
In short it was utterly compelling, and proved that a 2 second logo shot can give you more branding value than screaming a products name.
What a contrast to years of bogus yuppie lifestyle or self congratulatory feature led mobile phone advertising.
Once again Apple and its agency gives us all a leson in communication.
Hello!!