Run-a-Way
Ad Evaluation
VoxFox: The “Pricy”and the Priceless!
On 2012 Acer Inc launched a dubius commercial with a well-know actress, Megan Fox, in order to promote its new and very promiscuous product: Acer Aspire S7. But let's start from scratch with the scenario and the whatabouts of the
whole concept.
Straight from the beginning we see that the actress monopolizes the commercial. What is being showed is Mrs Fox sitting and talking, probably with her manager, about business. Somehow this makes Megan get bored and, within the next seconds, we all become aware of the actress' sensibility on animals. The whole concept of the commercial discusses this sensitiveness in a more particular way. Dolphins are the key animals that rise our "animal friendly" sensations and Acer seems to help on this arousal by being the intermediate of our communication with the animal kingdom. Well done Megan, well done Acer looks like being the final motto!
Our Critical Eye
Well to begin with everyone could mention that this is an "ok" advertisment but, probably not the master piece of the fourth biggest PC maker's press agents. At a first glance, it is true that the face of a celebrity could give some extra bonus to the product. Plus, there's no dount that the awarded director Ivan Zacharias makes an expensive production with some of Hollywood's sparkling gold dust. And for sure we all continue to remember the glowing Acer at the end of the spot. But at the end of the day, is that all we need for successful commercial?
Acer Aspire S7 is a super sleek PC; it has a great keyboard, a touch-screen and is absolutely perfect for Windows 8. In one word: the smart tablet we could all fall for! The big question arouses very reasonably at this point: WHERE DO ALL THESE HIGH TECH CHARACTERISTICS HIDE AT? We could probably state that they've been all drowned under the actress' face. And yes let's be honest, for many of us Megan is just a beautiful face with some barely artistic skills. After all, her hypocritical talent was never the issue! Somebody could say that this is not an obstacle for a successful commercial, and it wouldn't really be if the time we see her in front of our eyes was less than that.
Secondly, by choosing this way of product launching, Acer does not hit the -so wanted- target of rebranding. This commercial belongs to a campaign by Acer called "Explore your hidden passion" which invites people to become modern-day explorers. This campaign stays true to the spirit of Acer's new strategy "Explore beyond limits" with a little help from its products with tremendous capacities. However, not only don't we see the full abilities of Acer Aspire S7 but we definately fail to understand that this is a low cost device as well. The production itself looks so expensice that even Apple (that is considered to be far from our cheapest PC choice) could launch it. So, where is the advantage point of Acer and where is the- priceless for marketing- diversion of the product?
Last but not least, we have to discuss about the animals captivation issue. There is a glowing contradiction here! At the first few seconds we become witnesses of the actress'-kind of awkward!- ambulation of freeing the lobsters form the restautant's aquarium. Right on the nest scene though, we note that the dolphins that the scientists and Megan are experimenting on are in captivation. This is not a small issue if we think of all the discussions that have been held on this issue the previous years. Under no circumstances has somebody the right to detain living creatures. This is a big penalty for such a technology leviathan as Acer.
In conclusion, we have to admit that a commercial like this gives us some food for thought. As an effort it's been pretty sympathetic and fo sure not a bit despicable! Nevertheless, we have to wonder: Do a pair of beautiful eyes and some cute animals suffice to produce a succeddful commercial for a big company?
The story behind "Hello, Megan"
When somebody watches Acer's commercial for the first time, his thoughts and reaction will probably be something like "wow dolphins, how sweet! I love them!!!" and they will be attracted by Acer's advertisement.
The problem is that despite the sweet feeling the creators of this ad wanted to pass on to us through the use of dolphins, we detected two problems. The first one refers to the incongruity of the message.
In the beginning of the advertisment, we see Megan Fox, who liberates the lobsters form the aquarium to their natural enviroment, the sea. That's fine. But aftet that, she participates in experiments with planked dolphins. So, what do we have to think about Megan? Is she a zoophile or not? Is she against animal custody, or not?
The second and most serious problem is that on the 21st century it is common know what poly spaces do to dolphins. They cannot survive. They are not happy. They are dying because they became depressed.
Many researchers have found out that there is not a big viability when dolphins move from their natural environment to aquariums. The results of these researches referred in a well-known documentary film named The Cove.
The Cove was awarded with an Academy Award on 2010, as the best documentary feature. In this fim, among others, we can learn all the procedures from hunters detecting dolphins' flocks, to their capturing and selling to aquariums all over the world, and/or killing them for food in Japan.
There are many films on youtube on which we can see the negative results of captured dolphins.
Also, many organizations all over the world are concerned and act against the captivity of dolphins because the know what happens to them after that.
Some links:
- http://savejapandolphins.org/take-action/releasing-captive-dolphins
- http://www.marineconnection.org/campaigns/captivity_captive_free.html
- http://www.wdcs.org/submissions_bin/captivitybnd.pdf
We all love dolphins and the captivity industry have capitalized on this to make huge profits at the expense of animals' misery. After seeing these films, who can state that it is good for Acer's products to use captured dolphins for its advertisements?
Five Sences
The multi-sencory experience is a new advertising tool which is part of the multi-sensory marketing. In this kind of marketing, the advertisers try to combine the five senses in order to identify a brand and increase the brand's awareness. In the Acer's campaign "Explore Your Hidden Passions" is clear that this pioneering advertising tool has not been used.
Taking as example the VoxFox spot, let's see which senses are activated:
1. Sense of smell: The Acer's products don't have a unique smell for that reason they cannot support a "smelly campaign". But even if the advertising agency wanted to run a parallel "smelly campaign" inspired by the main one, it couldn't. That happens because the only scent that we can draw from VoxFox is the fish smell or the odour of a laboratory. Is it a good idea to connect the brand with something like that?
2. Sense of hearing: The sound has the ability to pass messages. The music as marketing tool is known many years now because it can easily be memorized by costumers. In addition, some companies use the voice as a component of their brand (there are some firms who constantly choose a voice to represent them in campaigns). The Acer campaign doesn't have a characteristic sound to remember and associate the brand with it. During the spots there is no melody or song. Also, a different actor is starring each time that doesn't let customers make a connection between the voice and the brand.
3. Sense of vision: The vision is the most important sense of human body but also of marketing because costumers feel safe and believe what the company claims. The environment in where a product is located, the light and the color are some aspects which should be taken into account when a spot is designed. In VoxFox spot, the laptop appears as a part of science equipment without any special light in it. Let's not mention the color of the produvt which doen't attract the eye at all.
4. Sence of taste: This part of multi-sensory marketing interests only foof and beverage industry.
5. Sense of touch: It's difficult to incorporate this sense into a larger multi-sensory campaign. We can tell that Acer's campaign has tried to promote this sense with this kind of spot. Generally, touch in marketing involves the materials from which the product is made and the quality of those materials.
With this expensive campaign Acer wants not only to build a brand but also to return to profitability. This campaign is a part of the company's new strategy. Acer wants to compete Apple's products. That is why it focuses on Ultrabook market. But how can spots like VoxFox help the company increase brand awareness? VoxFox doesn't make people store information and associate them with the brand. If the company is interested in long term benefits, it should re-design the advertising campaign using the new advertising tools.
by Run-a-Way