“Designed by Apple in California”. Big deal? That was the question I had for myself towards the end of the commercial when this liner slaps across the screen. There wasn’t any new tech nor content in the commercial. Not even the slightest amusement can I derive from this commercial. It is simply dull.
Apple’s commercial, “Designed by Apple in California” seem to have garner more attention than it expected. But not in a really pleasant manner. The commercial received a low score of 489 out of 900 based on the Ace Metric scale. Apple commercials never used to be boring nor sterile in any fashion. I still remember the Apple vs Microsoft commercials featuring the Mac talking to Windows with lots of quips, barbs, sight gags, and one-liners. The recent commercial has been a flop by many and haven’t been getting a lot of healthy publicity.
In fact one of the reasons attributing to the commercial’s bad reviews was the lack of information as well as the tonality depicted. While Apple remains a tech giant in it’s league, it has given viewers great disappointment by delivering a commercial that focus solely on it’s branding. Recently, Apple has been going under a lot of fire by the general public as well as their fans for the lack of unveiling great technology. People are starting to see a drop in the company’s standards in terms of their products and business operations.
As a solution to the lost of market share, it is natural to adopt an approach to regain consumer confidence by taking up the branding option in your marketing communications. This could be a desperate attempt to revive the spirits of their dying fans. I have to say, too much of these is not going to work. I theme these commercials as ‘fillers’. They aren’t exactly the kind of commercials you want to show to your viewers at this point of time. Your fans want ‘gamechangers’, new tech that would awe them. An arsenal of new equipment to let them stay amazed and keep their faith in the brand. Definitely not some rapport building brand commercials during such dire times.
Strides made by Apple towards their goal of regaining confidence has been futile. I hope to see more amazing work from Apple that would rekindle my love for the brand. Do you like the new Samsung commercials? What do you think of them compared to Apple’s new commercials?
Zack Chia 