“There is one clear winner in the Bei-ca-ching advertising and branding sweepstakes,” John Scott G writes for Advertising Industry Newswire.
Apple.
Scott G writes, “Yes, I know they don’t appear to be on any of the lists of official partners, sponsors or suppliers. Yes, I know they don’t seem to be purchasing any ads. But what is the one thing viewers keep seeing on such athletes as super swimmer Michael Phelps? The distinctive white ear buds of Apple’s iPod.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve seen Apple iPhone ads during Olympic coverage. Why they don’t air “Buy a Mac, Get a Free iPod” ads targeted to students and their parents is a vexing mystery, albeit predictable. For all of their marketing prowess, sometimes Apple can be maddeningly stupid.
Scott G continues, “This may be the finest example of product placement in world history. And it may have cost Apple absolutely nothing,” Scott G writes. “How do we know those ear buds are attached to an Apple product, I hear someone ask. Couldn’t they actually hook up to a Zune?”
MacDailyNews Take: Poor SanDisk. They are the clear-but-distant number two to Apple’s iPod juggernaut and have 3 times the market share of the woefully anemic Zune failure, yet they almost never get mentioned.
Scott G continues, “Couldn’t they actually hook up to a Zune? Well, no. First of all, Michael Phelps is a winner.”
“Second, and most important, it doesn’t matter if they’re hooked up to an Apple product, a Zune, or nothing at all (sorry to repeat myself). The point is that Apple owns the white cord and buds so when you see them, you think ‘Apple.’ I do believe they call that part of the branding thing,” Scott G writes. “It takes big brains but it doesn’t necessarily take a big budget.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “dslarsen” for the heads up.]
Gotta love it: “Couldn’t they actually hook up to a Zune? Well, no. First of all, Michael Phelps is a winner.”
Just pull the plug already, Microsoft. They would if they were smart. Of course, if they were smart, there wouldn’t be a Zune to discontinue in the first place.
It’s not just Michael Phelps, of course. Lance Armstrong sported iPod earbuds routinely during daily warmups throughout the nearly month-long Tour de France for many of his record seven wins. Many sports figures use iPods, not only for music, but to watch video of their respective sports, relax with a TV show or movie while traveling, etc.
Ubiquity offers excellent opportunities for free promotion.
“Yes, I know they don’t seem to be purchasing any ads.”
I’ve been watching NBC religiously and see one or 2 iPhone ads per night.
If buying more ads meant great product, mcDonalds would be a 5 stars.
re: using white earbuds with Zune
I now know two Zune owners. Both hate the iPod, as they view it as part of the “evil” Apple empire, with the DRM and making you use iTunes, etc. They would never rep Apple by using white earbuds.
And, no, not even a hint of irony from them.
Even cooler would be if he had the little shuffle clipped to his nipple…now THAT would sell iPods.
Fox and Friends (Fox News) had a reporter talking about Phelps playlist. Almost exclusively hip hop, with a splash of techno. If anyone was interested.
Microsoft will be loath to “pull the plug” on Zune, at least directly, as that would be an admission that Apple bested them. They might spin off the division as, say, Zune Multimedia. (It would have a brief life before being quietly shuttered.)
Or perhaps, recalling that several of their products failed to gain traction until the third iteration, they’re banking on Zune 3.0 to finally deliver something “good enough”. But, as Daniel Eran reminds us, Microsoft has no track record of succeeding in the consumer arena where it faces real competition. Where it has no market choke hold, it fails.
They both use that DRM riddled Vista on their ‘puters as well I bet.
Irony!
“I’ve been watching NBC religiously . . .”
Does that involve candles, incense and lots of chanting?
” shuffle clipped to his nipple”
The Nuffle? Sounds hot.
Give that man a free iPhone and iMac!!
Or at the very least give him an H2O Audio waterproof iPod case.
Apple should reverse their promo.
“Buy an apple iPod for $2500 and get a free Macbook Pro!”
Fetch us some actual news, MDN. Don’t try to pass us this crap so we can be distracted all morning talking about China and Phelps and the Olympics. I see your game.
There was a report on Shawn Johnson (gymnast) the other day… with her MacBook. Impressed me more than Phelps’s earbuds — those are already too common.
@Raymond in DC
I don’t know about that – Microsoft was pretty successful up against Palm in the PDA market. Of course, the PDA market is all but dead at this point, but nonetheless, they had some pretty competitive products and the only way Palm kept its head above water was to slash its prices and compete mostly on the low-end.
Not to defend Microsoft or anything
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HAHAHA!! Reports from South America: RIM’s Blackberry Bold has smaller screen than iPhone!!
The Bold’s resolution is higher though, but with a smaller screen, especially at that size, I don’t think anyone can tell the difference.
Scratch Dingleberry CrackBerry from being a competitor to iPhone!
It may be if they advertised their promo during Olympics that they would not have enough product in stock. New announcements coming next month, no? Current inventories low, yeah?
@Raymond in DC
Xbox is also pretty successful–maybe not making money (is this *still* the case?), but it’s definitely a serious competitor against the Wii and the PS3.
@Chris
Are you nuts?
@Nick Fury
I almost had a Danny Thomas coffee moment! LOL.
Wasn’t that the girl who sang the Chinese anthem in the opening ceremonies?
“Wasn’t that the girl who sang the Chinese anthem in the opening ceremonies?”
No, that was Milli-oko Vanilli-san.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2545387/Beijing-Olympics-Faking-scandal-over-girl-who-sang-in-opening-ceremony.html
I meant to compare Xbox360 against Wii and PS3, of course; though it’s obvious the original XBox did win enough mindshare to earn itself a successor.
Anyone catch the Colbert report yesterday when, despite harping on it for having a “kill switch,” he actually praised it quite nicely while slamming the Zune at the same time:
“I knew I should have bought a Zune. They can’t kill me… or do anything else!”
The crowd clapped and cheered at that.
Speaking of free press, did anybody else see the Colbert Report last night. My favorite part is when he talked about the iPhone kill switch is to kill you. then he say, I could have gone with a Zune, they can’t kill you….or do anything else. lol
Not only that but Nastia Liukin was using an iPhone to call her mom when she won. It had a silver type silicon jacket on it, but you can tell it was the iPhone as you can see the top controls and sides at some points.
Something that I really don’t understand about Apple is that they are so slooooow when it comes to promote the mac, the iphone and anything they make in major sport events worldwide. Apple could take advantage and create an Olympic iPhone or iPod to support the USA Team, could create a ipod or iphone with the flag of every major country participating at the Olympic Games, could sponsor the X-Games (Disney Property), could create a MLB ipod or iphone with the logo of every team and load it with pictures and stats, but instead they buy two advertising spots at NBC every night, I have seen those Ads and let me tell you, tooo bored for this kind of events. The olympic are the hottest event every 4 years and Apple missed it. Apple is creative in one thing and sloooow thinker in other
Colbert was awesome last night. And when did he get a 3G iPhone? Earlier in the week, when he was checking for his Democratic Convention mail message (not), he had a 1st Gen iPhone……..
Does Liukin know that it costs something like $2 a minute to use an iPhone in China, thru AT&T;’s plan? I wonder if she unlocked it, and is using a Chinese SIM on China Mobile? It’d be cheaper.
who is watching the olympics???
who obsesses on these athletes and what they are wearing or have hanging off them?
who buys something because some swimmer owns it?
who does not already know about an ipod?
@Anonymouse
I don’t think she cares about that after the win. I’m sure she’ll be able to afford it when the bill comes.
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“who does not already know about an ipod?”
It’s not just him. I watched footage of the American womens gynastics team walking to the gym, sevral of them were sporting the iconic white earbuds, too.
In fact they’re all over the place.
Yes, it IS an iPod. There have been many stories on this. (I do love John Scott G’s story though)
Here’s one that even list what’s on his iPod!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2142
Being a former swimmer (somewhat close to the Olympic Trials cut-off times), I can only say that Michael Phelps is a freak of nature – he was born to be an Olympic gold medalist.
Cubert,
“he was born to be an Olympic gold medalist.”
Or, an amphibian.
Yeah, but can Phelps stop enemy warships with a loud honking noise?
Nick Fury,
“Yeah, but can Phelps stop enemy warships with a loud honking noise?”
Have you seen what that animal eats in one day?
The tsunami from one of his dumps could capsize the 7th fleet!
This just in. Hillary Clinton’s supporters are now lobbying to get her to replace Nastia Liukin as the women’s gymnastics individual all-around winner.
Vote for me, friends.
White earbuds come only from Apple? *rolls eyes*
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