Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy - Valleywag Comments

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

NydiaGuinea pig — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:20:56 PDT

I subscribe to Fast Company, and this was a good article for a few reasons. I commend the mag for not conceding - on Apple's behalf - to the Microsoft of the future. The piece showed the uphill climb for Bogusky's team (not being a gamer, I never realized Microsoft's gaming ad campaigns sometimes sucked, too). FC showed a few failed jobs as well as some fabled successes created by the clever and bold CP+B folks. As far as putting a shine to Microsoft's standard-issue boots, I believe it is going to require far more than an ad campaign, even to the scale that CP+B manage (viral marketing, go forth!). To shine these boots, buckets of shoe shine and rags will not do. What CP+B did to bring Burger King away from a McDonald's knock-off image was enjoyable to watch. I have long found BK food tasted better, was prepared more sensibly, and was "better" (in several ways) than McD's, back in the day (the 1970s, 1980s), and today. To try to take the averageness, the staid monolith-ness, out of the giant and colorless slate block that is Microsoft, it is going to require more than creative ad people. For Windows OS and the overbearing yet unimpressive "tools" in their standard business software (Paper Clip helper, grammar check, automatic spelling correction, anyone?), they will need more than $300 mil will get them. Much more. Thanks to aggressive and steady image marketing, also known as made- up facts or lies to some, Microsoft convinced the masses, decades ago, into thinking that Windows was the only game in town. They had popular ignorance on their side back then. Back then, Apple was commonly (while not exclusively) selling to grade schools, media pros, and artists. After one bold Apple Computer ad, the famous "1984," the company seemed to take a sabbatical on strong advertising till the iMacs hit. This is not a BK vs. McD's faceoff. Not even in reverse. The big question could be: just how gullible are technology customers today, as compared to those of the 1980s (and 1990's and early 21st Century)? Now people have suffered with putting too many dollars into their Win-PCs after bringing them home, many times over. Of course some people (evidenced in a few comments among those here) forget the costs, and just point out the stated dollars on the front end. of the actual CPU and attached parts. So since Vista proved to be no Christmas present for users, where will things go? Perhaps Windows is open to wooing us into buying by-the-piece systems still, rather than those more complete, fancier-off-the-shelf systems from Apple. But is boring going to be the new interesting?

NydiaGuinea pig

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:09:28 PDT

Well I work on my wavy locks (grown all by myself). Are chiseled features, stylish boots and designer jeans mandatory? For my name. It sounds a bit like his ^_^ Pls hire me MSFT :-))

Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

SharanyaAmphinomus — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:54:30 PDT

@HarrisonHopkins:
@HarrisonHopkins No no. You're making a common error in comparing prices between Mac and PC, which is to only look at the sticker price. What you're not considering is actually what makes Macs CHEAPER than PCs, and that is Opportunity Cost. You can go ahead and buy a $1,000 PC or even a $500 PC for that matter, but take your downtime in hours per year, add it to the time you spend on hold waiting for support from India and the time you spend fixing the PC. Then take the total hours and multiple by what you feel your time is worth per hour. For example, if your time is worth $50/hour and you spend an hour a week farting around with your PC to get it to work properly (reasonable), 52 x $50 = $2,600 plus your list price of $1,000 = $3,600. If your time is worth $150/hour, 52 x $150 = $7,800 you are paying for your PC plus the $1,000 list price = $8,800, which is considerably more expensive than any Mac on the market today. You simply cannot just compare sticker prices. You could if you were speaking about the same equipment, but PC is a far inferior product, more apt to break down, with a poor support and time-consuming support system and a different OS. When you do the math, it's actually cheaper to buy a Mac.

SharanyaAmphinomus

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

digitol — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:50:36 PDT

No. Sigh. So sad.

digitol

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

Spy from the Land of Rainpeople — Sat, 17 May 2008 22:35:47 PDT

@raincoaster: Who knows? Certainly not me, I've been out of the MacOS market since 7.1. I see two possible moves:
(a) Narrow one: just move into the niche for strident marketing (ala Bang&Olufsen and Apple.)
(b) Wider one: actualy close the gap in the MSFT's product line and design a complete system, possibly around the "surface" concept: matching software, hardware and furniture.

Spy from the Land of Rainpeople

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

HarrisonHopkins — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:46:59 PDT

If "better" means "horribly overpriced and a huge ripoff", then yes, I agree with your opinions on Apple. I can get a laptop with the exact same specs as the Macbook Pro for over $1000 less.

HarrisonHopkins

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

raincoaster — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:47:32 PDT

@Spy from the Land of Rainpeople: so, you're saying they hired this guy because he looks like Mac Guy? Clever.

@michaellamb: Those are RatherGood's Spongmonkeys.

raincoaster

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

wheatsworth — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:21:34 PDT

Fast Company is still publishing?

wheatsworth

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

michaellamb — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:59:44 PDT

they need to find the ad firm that did those mutant things singing "eat quizno's subs"

michaellamb

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

Rachel Marsden — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:59:41 PDT

Fast Company has the best airbrushers I've ever seen.

Rachel Marsden

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

WagCurious — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:45:55 PDT

C'mon Jackson, I expect a little better research out of you. The branding "mess" amounts to some guy finding "six different header backgrounds" at Live.com. Oh Dear God the confusion! Actually, I think that most people can name Microsoft's desktop operating system product and its office product. I would call that a branding success.

WagCurious

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

Spy from the Land of Rainpeople — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:38:01 PDT

You guys don't get MSFT's use of intentional confusion as a marketing tool. It is actually quite similar to you guys posing something slightly incorrect on the Valleywag: lots of people jump in to correct you in the comments.

Rick Beluzzo who had swung through SGI and MSFT as a senior executive had actually fairly good expose about it, but I can't find it now. Ed McCracken (past CEO of SGI) had even article in Fortune about intentionally creating chaos to gain advantage in marketing.

They are there to feed the whole cottage industry of MSFT explainers. Unlike marketing affiliates they don't get a cut of sales.

Think it through, it is actually quite interesting strategy, on par with "integrated innovation."

Spy from the Land of Rainpeople

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

Rock tha Hizzee — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:29:03 PDT

Rock tha Hizzee

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

TeenageCaveman — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:22:41 PDT

I think I've posted here about this once before, but I just don't see that as a good fit. CP&B is famous for bringing us the creepily mute giant Burger King and the eerie chicken that does whatever you tell it to do website. I just don't see Microsoft corp marketing approving goatse as their new mascot because it's "subversive, yet well known enough by those 'who get it'"...

TeenageCaveman

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

WilliamMarkFelt — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:17:09 PDT

Wow, I can' believe how well Jackon Browne reinvented himself.

WilliamMarkFelt

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

FiveStarEggRoll — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:11:29 PDT

@deathbychichi: You've been reading everything wrong. Microsoft doesn't want to crush Apple or Google. They have a crush on Apple or Google but have to settle for ugly old Yahoo with the sagging tits.

Harry "what will become of old hag eBay" Wang

FiveStarEggRoll

Adman Alex Bogusky latest Fast Company coverboy

deathbychichi — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:06:27 PDT

Crushing Apple... Crushing Google... that Microsoft... always with the crushing.

deathbychichi