AllThingsD » marketing campaign

Amazon: What iPad?

Peter Kafka — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:16:54 +0000

Sure, some Apple zealots camped overnight to get an iPad this weekend. But Amazon wants to remind the rest of us that it has a popular gadget too.*

Here’s what greeted visitors to the e-commerce giant’s front page Sunday night (click to enlarge):

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reminds us that Amazon (AMZN) can boast of one thing that Apple (AAPL) can’t right now: The ability to sell books from Random House.

The publisher has yet to agree to the “agency model” Apple is using with the rest of the industry whereby publishers get to raise prices for their titles but receive less for each sale.

*As my readers note, Amazon has already released an iPad app, so you can’t argue that the company is ignoring the competition. It will be interesting to see if Amazon ever rolls out a marketing campaign that compares its device directly with Apple’s.

Not With a Bing, but a Whimper IV

John Paczkowski — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:00:36 +0000

Looks like Bing’s steady upward trend of market share gains may have reversed itself. Microsoft’s new search engine saw its U.S. search share fall to 8.99 percent in September from 9.49 percent in August, according to figures from Hitwise (see table below; click to enlarge).

Troubling news for Microsoft (MSFT). Hitwise’s latest numbers are the second set of metrics from a Web analytics firm showing Bing’s market share in decline. Last week, StatCounter claimed Bing’s share of the U.S. search market in September had slipped to 8.5 percent from 9.6 percent in August.

As I noted then, while a month of slight decline might herald the beginning of a trend, it certainly doesn’t guarantee one–especially in search, where surges and lulls in market share are quite common. That said, this is the second set of data suggesting that Bing’s traffic may be leveling out. Whether this reflects the end of the big Bing marketing campaign or falling consumer interest remains to be seen.

Incidentally, Microsoft’s new search partner, Yahoo (YHOO), also saw its search share slip for the month, according to Hitwise. Yahoo claimed 16.96 percent in August. In September, it claimed 16.38 percent. Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) took 71.08 percent share for the month, up from 70.24 percent in August.

Verizon to iPhone Users: "Want Five Times More 3G Coverage? There’s a Map for That."

John Paczkowski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:24:44 +0000

Want five times more 3G coverage? There’s a map for that.

That’s the cheeky slogan of a new Verizon ad reportedly set to debut during tonight’s “Monday Night Football” game. Riffing on the tagline from Apple’s iPhone commercials, it essentially turns widespread complaints about the quality, coverage and speed of AT&T’s network into a Verizon marketing campaign–if it wasn’t that already. “Browse the Web and download music and apps, at 3G speed, in five times more places than the nation’s number two wireless carrier,” the ad suggests. “Before you pick a phone, pick a network.”

Quite the sucker punch from Verizon, and a well-timed one too. AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity deal is set to expire sometime next year. And recent reports suggest that Apple, by signing on Verizon as a second carrier partner, could double U.S. iPhone sales in the near term. Verizon (VZ) pointing a mocking finger at AT&T (T) in an ad like this certainly isn’t going to do anything to make AT&T’s negotiations with Apple (AAPL) go any more smoothly.

UPDATE:

Here’s the ad:

[Image Credit: TechFlash]

Verizon to iPhone Users: "Want Five Times More 3G Coverage? There’s a Map for That."

John Paczkowski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:24:44 +0000

Want five times more 3G coverage? There’s a map for that.

UPDATE:

Here’s the ad:

[Image Credit: TechFlash]

Yahoo's Bartz: Microsoft Deal Was "Very Clever"

Peter Kafka — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:35:15 +0000

Say this about Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz: She promised to answer any and all questions at a New York press conference today, and she delivered! The event, which was meant to highlight Yahoo’s new $100 million marketing campaign, went on for a good hour, and the Q&A covered a wide variety of topics (and a PG-rated F-bomb).

And when that finished, Bartz agreed to answer yet more questions. Video is below, but here’s a synopsis:

Should press and investors really compare Yahoo (YHOO) to Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL unit? “We aspire higher than that.”
Bartz explains and defends her Microsoft (MSFT) search deal yet again. Key point: “I never wanted a big upfront payment,” she says. “What I got was revenue, with my expenses covered. I think that’s actually very clever…cash doesn’t help me. But revenue helps me. Revenue without expenses really helps me.”
Bartz says major Yahoo investors like Gordon Crawford support her tactics and strategy: “They’re fine. I meet with them a lot.”
Yahoo is interested in M&A, but “nothing on an epic scale,” says Bartz. “Buying interesting sites and content so we can pull in users or smart people, always a great option for us.” Giant joint merger combinations? “That’s really hard. Small and medium-sized opportunities are really what make sense for us.”

[ See post to watch video ]

Vonage Churning Subscribers, Stomachs

John Paczkowski — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:40:03 +0000

Can this really be true? Vonage posted another quarterly profit?

Indeed it is: The Internet phone service provider reported a second-quarter profit of $2.3 million, or a penny a share. Wall Street had been expecting a loss of three cents a share. Great news.

Sadly for Vonage, however, the news was tainted by an increase in subscriber defections. The company lost 89,000 net subscribers during the quarter as churn rose to 3.2 percent from three percent. It ended the quarter with just 2.5 million lines.

“While our financial performance was strong, our subscriber base did not grow at expected levels due in part to the challenges of the current economy and the increasing impact of wireless substitution,” said Vonage Chief Executive Marc Lefar. “During the quarter, we launched our new marketing campaign, which we anticipate will drive new customer acquisition over time.”

“Anticipate” seems a generous word here. “Hope” is perhaps a better one. To lose almost 90,000 subscribers in a single quarter at time when the lousy economy should be inspiring cost-conscious consumers to sign up for Vonage’s discount service seems rather bleak. That better be some marketing campaign.

Apple to Microsoft: You Can't Put Frosting on Manure

John Paczkowski — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:05:18 +0000

In the end, Apple just couldn’t help itself. Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC … and I’ve been made into a stereotype” ad campaign was just too wide and deserving a target. Apple could no more ignore it than Steve Jobs could hold back his pitching arm upon finding Steve Ballmer sitting above the dunk tank at the Santa Clara County Fair. So it was inevitable, really, that we’d see Apple take a few potshots at Microsoft’s “transformative” new “made on a Mac” marketing campaign in two new “Mac vs. PC” ads that debuted over the weekend. The first ad, “The V Word,” pokes fun at Redmond for trying to promote Vista without mentioning it by name. The second, “Bean Counter,” mocks Microsoft for spending $300 million to advertise Vista instead of using that money to fix it.

Ironic, isn’t it, that Apple (AAPL) would slag Microsoft’s (MSFT) use of its ad budget by producing a new ad of its own expressly for that purpose? Still, Apple does have a point. As I noted here back in July, proposing to fix technology problems with advertising is rarely a wise idea.

Previously:

[Image Credit: Worth1000]

Apple to Microsoft: You Can't Put Frosting on Manure

John Paczkowski — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:05:18 +0000

Previously:

[Image Credit: Worth1000]

The Wii Version Will Come With a WiiBong and WiiSyringe

John Paczkowski — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:04:57 +0000

Oh, look: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has “reignited” the debate about violent videogames. What a surprise. Last time GTA and its publisher, Rockstar Games, sparked this kind of outrage was over “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and the infamous “Hot Coffee mod”–a patch that unlocked an explicit but anatomically improbable sex scene between the game’s protagonists.

This time the outcry is over the Nintendo DS-bound Chinatown Wars and its drug-dealing minigame, which offers players the chance to try their hand at a little narcotics trafficking. “We wanted to have a drug-dealing minigame in lots of the GTA games,” said Rockstar vice president Dan Houser. “We played with it a little in ‘Vice City Stories,’ because it worked really well juxtaposed with the main story. It works well with what GTA is, with driving around the map, and it gives you another thing to think about–another layer or piece of the puzzle to keep you motivated.”

And another layer to add to the GTA marketing campaign, which clearly thrives on controversy.