Apple Computer launches ad blitz for new Macs.

Apple Computer launches ad blitz for new Macs

Apple Computer, known for its merchandising moxie, hasn't done much to disturb that image in its new advertising campaign, which flashes out on television this week to kick-off a three-month, $25 million blitz-krieg.

Using its slogan, "The Power to Do Your Best," Apple is beginning with a series of 10-second spots that say, "Watch for October 15," when its new models of Macintosh personal computers hit the stores, now lower-priced to meet stiffening competition, primarily from Microsoft Corp.'s "Windows" program.

Then, everywhere it will seem -- World Series, L.A. Law, Twin Peaks, Monday Night Football -- will be 60-second "stories" on the wonder of Macintosh, the "Industrial Revelation." This will be followed by a print media bliz.

"The idea is to get attention and awareness through television to get across that Apple has something new, in fact a new generation of affordable computers, and then follow up with print ads to detail what it's all about," said Steve Hayden, head of the Los Angeles office of BBDO, the Omnicom Group ad agency that created the campaign.

The print ads will use USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times plus a dozen other top newspapers. In addition, ads will appear in business publications such as Forbes and Business Week.

Apple is aiming primarily at education and business markets for its new Macintosh computers, but it's emphasizing that Macs fit well into the home, too. "We look at the home as a location, not necessarily a sizable market," Hayden said. "Even if you're working at home, you want a business-like or office-like computer."

The low-end black-and-white Mac Classic, under $1,000, is enough of an updated version of the $2,000-and-up Mac Plus to qualify as a new product, so a price comparision between them is meaningless. But the color Mac LC, at about $3,000, is down from $6,000 for previous color Macs.

Hayden, who has worked on Apple ads almost since the company's inception, having previously been with the Chiat/Day agency here, says every year the company considered changing its "power to be best" slogan, but the saying has become so entrenched around headquarters in Cupertino that such a move might be impossible. It's on almost every T-shirt and coffee mug at Apple, Hayden said.

Apple's previous slogan was, "The Most Personal Computer."

Hayden won't detail exact advertising expenditures, saying merely that Apple is "heavying up" its budgets in both television and print, but the $25 million for TV alone compares with a total budget of about $40 million last year.

Advertising of computers typically accelerates in the fourth quarter because it is the biggest period for corporate expenditures on data processing. Hayden said "extra money" often shows up at year-end. Tax considerations also result in sales, he added. And although Apple is not driving for PC sales to the home, its new models (some available in the $700 range), now are considered to be priced at a level where they could be considered affordable Christmas presents.

The commercials are somewhat more sedate than the shock effect of Apple hitting out with "1984" on the Super Bowl that year or its "lemming" commercials (non-Apple users were lemmings going to self-destruction in the sea) that followed, but they show some fire.

Hayden said Apple was striving for credibility. So he began to look for endorsements from business users who found Apple computers competitively unique for their purposes. The agency hit several roadblocks in the search.

At a large accountancy firm and an airline that uses Apple equipment, executives would not allow the use of their names in the commercials because they didn't want to show competitors how they got an edge. Hayden says that's the honest truth, cross his heart.

The biggest edge, he claims, was in Apple's old story of "user friendly." That led to higher productivity; experience showed that the computer systems had very little down time because the system was easy to learn. Hayden said an example comes from his own office. A new secretary can produce a letter on the Apple the birst day of employment, he said.

One of the advertisements, which Hayden isn't sure will be used, in fact features BBDO. A board meeting at a big company is interrupted by a phone call from an executive of "Batton, Barton, Durstine & Osborne," the handle by which BBDO used to be known. The "ad agency for Apple" asks if the company will allow its name to be used as an endorsement in Macintosh advertisements. The result is a turn-down; the company's lawyers "just can't permit it."

Hayden said, however, that some real life companies, such as Hughes Aircraft and Seafirst, did permit endorsements of Apple products.

One commercial features a burglary at a computer warehouse. Apple computers, naturally, are taken; those that might be IBMs are left. Says a guard: "They took the expensive stuff, huh?' Answers another: 'No, they left it."

Another features a lively lecture on "industrial revelation" by a college professor to students using Macintosh computers. A production line flashes as the professor makes points. Still another commercial emphasizes Apple's world-wide use, with scenes from such places as Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, Manhattan.

They're more sedate than Apple commercials of the past, perhaps reflecting the fact the company has become more sedate, a premise with which Hayden agrees.