Think Different…

Did I read somewhere that the same ad agency doing these for Gateway is the group that came up with Apple’s “Think Different” spots a few years back?

Gateway Versus Apple

Retro, you said:
“PDF page loading, system startup, Quake 3 and Javascript. Wow those are great tests. That is, if you constantly needing to read manuals to figure stuff out, having your computer crash on you, enjoy playing outdated games, and loading ridiculously phony web pages.”

Well, they did buy a Windows box, didn’t they?

Yes they surely did.  Welcome to the forums!

Gateway fails miserably at hardware/software integration.
I have a Pentium III at 1 Ghz running Windows 2000 at work, and every so often I get errors upon errors at startup.  And guess what?  No software was installed at all.  Usually the only thing to cause errors on a Mac is extra software or hardware installed.  Only this system has remained as virgin a Windows 2000 system can be and still every so often it can’t find other machines on the network, and has lots of errors, and sometimes grinds to a halt.

Re: Think Different…

[quote author=“Anonymous”]Did I read somewhere that the same ad agency doing these for Gateway is the group that came up with Apple’s “Think Different” spots a few years back?

Actually, the agency who did the orginal Apple commercials is a great advertising shop called TBWA Chiat/Day. These new Gateway commercials came out a a little agency that was founded by a few guys who left there. Seeing the genius of the “Think Different” spots and then comparing it to these new Gateway commercials, I don’t think they had worked on Apple during their employment at TBWA Chiat/Day.

p.s. - that all-in-one gateway design is horrific!

gateway will go away

So, did Steve Jobs pay Gateway to compare their piece of crap to the iMac?

This move by Gateway gives Apple’s Switch campaign even more validity.

Think about it.

Apple is out there trying to get PC people to switch platforms. Most of whom don’t know much about Mac or the OS. Now along comes this Gateway add comparing it self to an iMac. They just put the Mac at the top of the food chain. Cool. The PC world has for a long time effectively muted the Apple question by not even talking about it. Gateway has clearly opened a can of worms. Let the battle begin!

I work in the world of advertising and comparison ads are not a good sign for a company. It pretty much means the agency lost control of their client. It sound like Gateway is in trouble.

Also, neither the iMac or OS X pose any real threat to the WinTel market (yet).  In fact the Dell and HP are of more concern to MicroSoft than Apple. Gateway should be working with a software supplier to put more free apps on their systems. But if they want to help make Apple a player in this much bigger market it is the best money Apple never spent.

Lets just hope that once Apple’s market share rises we will see a better prices from them. Hey it could happen. The more you sell the cheaper you can sell them for, right?

Re: gateway will go away

[quote author=“fishboy”]I work in the world of advertising and comparison ads are not a good sign for a company. It pretty much means the agency lost control of their client. It sound like Gateway is in trouble.

Interesting point.
It also indicates that Apple’s iMac ads have also reached the people making Gateway’s advertising decisions, not just the consumer.

It’s like heckling a basketball player from the crowd…. He’s fine as long as he never acknowledges you and your chiding. You never know if he even heard you. Once he does, his mind is no longer on the game.

Making an opponent react to your moves is a good indicator of a strong position. Just ask a chessmaster.

-Dan

One other interesting point.
Gateway may feel that they have to compete with Apple directly due to the fact that Apple stores may be scene by Gateway as a threat.
I live in NYC and once in a while travel outside this world to suburbia I have often noted the vast amount of Gateway Stores. In the days before the Apple store I would prod my girlfriend to stop by a Best Buy or Circuit City and the like to see if would could find anything Apple. Most of the time nothing, and when we did see an Apple corner it was dirty and most of the Macs were frozen and beat up. It sure made PCs look good.

Anyway, Gateway may be lashing out because of the store issue. Lets face it, those stores are the only thing Gateway had going.

Outta left field

I might be off track, outta left field and just annoying the rest of you but what the hell ....

A few years ago I met an LA marketing director who offered me an interesting story about the nature of the USA consumer society beast.

He explained how a burger franchise business had approached his company to try and make them bigger than McDonalds.

The first thing they did was engage some consultant accountants to look at where the business was going. These consultants provided damning evidence that the company was going to go down in spectacular fashion, no two ways about it.

The marketing exec explained the problem thus: the burger company had expanded way too fast on the back of intelligent location choices and clever initial phase marketing but the problem was the company’s product was crap. They could get people in the door but couldn’t get them to come back. Reversing this situation would take so much time as to be ineffectual because it would suck resources dry.

The solution? Help the company go out of business. Develop a marketing campaign that would be horrendously expensive and force the company into insolvency. That, at least, would be less painful than trying to wind up a business that apparently was doing well.

And the point of this post?

Sometimes, what appears to be a spectacularly stupid decision can have its purpose grounded in a genuinely considered approach.

In Gateway’s case, they may just be prepared to go down in flames while hanging onto the slim hope that their campaign might actually work.

The burger chain, BTW, is still going (or at least it was last time I wa in LA).

A colleague of mine just got a Dell laptop from our workplace for some extra work she’s doing.  She had asked for a TiBook.  Her response?  She gave the Dell away, and is now bringing n her iBook to work.  Why?  This is what she said about the Dell:  “It’s a flimsy POS—I couldn’t begin to use it.”  I don’t know what model it is, but her reaction supports your point.

About the Gateway ads?  Well, it’s nice to see a Mac on TV more often

The ad itself for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet…

This will be pulled within a day or so since I’m not sure what the copyright issues are on this sort of thing (any fair use lawyers around here who could set me straight on this sort of thing?), but here’s the actual ad for those interested:

http://www.aapltalk.com/movies/profile_vs_imac.mov

—BlueDjinn

I think that so long as what you post is a link, you’re not violating copyright.  But then, I’m not a lawyer (praise the lord )

The link goes back to BlueDjinn’s site.  The actual QuickTime file may need to be removed from there, that’s what he meant.  The link being here is fine.

Re: Outta left field

[quote author=“coaten”]

Sometimes, what appears to be a spectacularly stupid decision can have its purpose grounded in a genuinely considered approach.

In Gateway’s case, they may just be prepared to go down in flames while hanging onto the slim hope that their campaign might actually work.
LA).

There may be something to this

However, if I were Gateway, I would consider the Chapter 11 route, claiming the lease obligations on the Country Stores are a liability greater than the company’s assets.

In Chapter 11 I’d work to settle out the leases on the Country Store either by negotiating for better terms or simply closing the stores that chronically run in the red. I’d also put a decent selection of inventory in the Country Stores that do experience profitable traffic.

Gateway has already curtailed its overseas activity and closed several under performing stores. The all-in-one is late to market. It was supposed to be an early summer release. Gateway has missed the education buying season and the bulk of the back-to-school opportunities. A big ad campaign won’t save Gateway. But a realistic approach to the market and further efforts to curtail money-losing operations might have given them another chance.

Re: Outta left field

[quote author=“DawnTreader”][quote author=“coaten”]

Sometimes, what appears to be a spectacularly stupid decision can have its purpose grounded in a genuinely considered approach.

In Gateway’s case, they may just be prepared to go down in flames while hanging onto the slim hope that their campaign might actually work.
LA).

There may be something to this

However, if I were Gateway, I would consider the Chapter 11 route, claiming the lease obligations on the Country Stores are a liability greater than the company’s assets.

In Chapter 11 I’d work to settle out the leases on the Country Store either by negotiating for better terms or simply closing the stores that chronically run in the red. I’d also put a decent selection of inventory in the Country Stores that do experience profitable traffic.

.

Thanks for your input, Dawntreader, you’re obviously close to this. My post omitted much for the sake not only of brevity but because my understanding of US corporate law is next to nil.