Marketing

In time for the Super Bowl, Apple posts shortened ‘Light Verse’ and ‘Sound Verse’ iPad Air ads

Earlier this month during the NFL playoffs, Apple posted a new iPad Air commercial titled 'Your Verse Anthem' and featuring a voiceover from the 1989 American drama film Dead Poets Society. Running one minute and 30 seconds long, it's been airing on television for several days now.

With the Super Bowl looming, the company has now released shortened versions of the commercial to its YouTube channel, each conveniently running 30 seconds long...

Poll: is Apple going to advertise the Mac’s 30th anniversary during Super Bowl?

This one's a stretch, but Apple's Macintosh is soon celebrating its 30th anniversary and advertising legend Lee Clow hinted in a pair of tweets that the company just might celebrate the occasion by running an ad during the Super Bowl XLVIII.

"Good football. Good sunset. Mac's gonna be 30 this week," his tweet reads. "Gonna be a good Super Bowl. Mac's gonna be 30 :)," another tweet teased.

Clow was Steve's personal friend and he is the Chairman, Global Director and former Chief Creative Office of TBWA\Worldwide, one of the world's top ad shops.

More importantly, the advertising guru helped create Apple’s ‘Think Different’ slogan, the iPod silhouettes ad series and the famous ’1984′ ad, which was directed by Ridley Scot and televised as part of the third quarter Super Bowl XVIII telecast on this day thirty years ago.

So, is Apple going to run this epic ad (or a new one) during the upcoming Super Bowl?

NYT Magazine design director joining Apple’s marketing team

Speaking with media outlet Mediabistro, longtime New York Times Magazine design director Arem Duplessis revealed that he is leaving the publication to take a position at Apple. He'll be joining the company's internal marketing team, though his specific role is unknown.

This is a significant hire for Apple, as Duplessis is a highly-regarded designer who is responsible for some of the most beautiful covers of the NYT Magazine in the last decade. And his department has won the ADC's 'Design Team of The Year' award the past 3 years in a row...

Poll: who has the best holiday ad – Apple, Samsung or Nokia?

Apple a week ago begun airing its nicely done iPhone 5s holiday ad. Titled 'Misunderstood', the tear-inducing video tells a tale of an introverted teenage boy who surprises his family with a thoughtful holiday gift, an iMovie clip he created on his iPhone 5s to cherish the time his family spent together.

The 90-second spot bursts with emotion and is now all over the place: it's been prominently featured during yesterday's NFL game, for example. More importantly, it seems to have been well-received due to its powerful emotional aspect.

Samsung and Microsoft-owned Nokia meanwhile have fired their own ad salvo in their national battle for the hearts and minds of consumers this holiday season...

Apple website adorned with moving holiday commercial and teaser graphics

I've always liked how Apple each holiday season changes its homepage to feature some nice holiday-themed graphics and ads. This year is no different: after airing an excellent new iPhone 5s 'Misunderstood' ad this past weekend, Apple has now refreshed its homepage with said video, as well as some nice teaser graphics.

The graphics includes links to the commercial itself as well as the home video in its entirety, which Apple says was shot on the iPhone 5s.

Go visit Apple.com now and get your handkerchiefs ready!

Apple experimenting with custom landing page for Angry Birds Go! in the App Store

Last month, Apple began testing the app trailer waters by hosting a video clip on the App Store for the new game Clumsy Ninja. The embedded clip had no voiceover or custom App Store branding, and it's the only one we've seen like this in the Store to date.

Now, it looks like Apple is running another experiment involving app and media discovery. We noticed this afternoon that it has given the new game Angry Birds Go! a custom landing page in the App Store with links to its related soundtrack and other apps...

Microsoft doubles down on iPad bashing with a pair of new Surface ads

In what's now become a recurring theme, Windows maker Microsoft just fired the latest salvo of television commercials that predictably portray Apple's iPad as a lesser tablet. Posted on the official Surface blog, a pair of holiday-themed advertisements highlight one hardware and one software feature of the Microsoft tablet: a built-in kickstand and multi-account support.

The Redmond giant doesn't shy away from mentioning the iPad brand name in the videos. "Free apps on the iPad don’t offer the same hands-free technology," says the voiceover in the first ad that highlights a Food & Drink app which come preloaded with Windows 8.1. The other ad lambasts Apple's device because it "doesn’t allow for multiple accounts and does not have the ability to monitor usage"...

Apple highlights various ways people use iPad in new ‘Life on iPad’ webpage

Apple has added a new webpage to its website entitled "Life on iPad." The page is dedicated to showing the various ways people are using the popular tablet, and as of right now, it features stories on how 6 people use it in their day-to-day lives.

One of the stories talks about how champion speed skater Bridie Farrell uses the iPad to review practice and race videos as she prepares for the Olympics, and another shows how Siemens Energy-Wind Service technicians use the device at work...

Apple launches trade-in program in India to make older iPhones less expensive

India is home to 1.24 billion people. As such, the second most-populous nation (after China) is among the fast-growing markets for smartphones. Brazil, Russia, India and China have a collective population of nearly three billion people and as such these so-called BRIC markets are estimated to each overtake the United States in smartphone sales by 2018.

India is particularly important to Apple so Tim Cook & Co. in past few months rolled out a series of initiatives aimed at making it easier for cash-strapped consumers to purchase an iPhone. Apple's premium pricing strategy coupled with high import taxes and low average pay put the iPhone out of reach for many average Indians so the firm is now launching a new smartphone trade-in program in co-operation with local resellers...

Amazon (again) takes potshots at iPad in Kindle Paperwhite ad

On the surface, Amazon is seemingly supportive of Apple's iOS platform as the company updates its various iOS applications on a regular basis - even if it's just a courtesy to its iOS-loving users who want to enjoy Amazon services on their iPhone and iPad.

Scratch a little deeper and all hell breaks loose.

For starters, the online retailing giant is waging legal battle against Apple over e-book price fixing. And given the two tech titans increasingly compete on hardware, software and services, it's really no surprise Amazon's marketing department is taking direct jabs at Apple users every now and then.

This February, for example, the company aired a much-flawed screen comparison video pitting its 1080p Kindle tablet against Apple's better-than-1080p iPad with Retina display. This time around, an Amazon ad is challenging the e-reading experience on a tablet such as the iPad, versus that on the Kindle Paperwhite.

Have a look right below...

Apple promoting stock apps in App Store search results at devs’ expense

Apple has cunningly devised a novel though controversial way of promoting its own iOS 7 stock apps, features and services right in the App Store search. The application store has seen a whopping 60 billion cumulative downloads thus far and with over a million apps carried it's serving a lot of customers on a daily basis.

If you now go to the App Store and run a search for popular generic terms such as 'browser,' 'movies' and 'SMS', the first entry popping up in your search results should be a banner advertising a related stock iOS 7 apps or feature like Safari, iTunes Store, Messages and more...

Apple bars gold/red/green/yellow device shots from devs’ marketing materials

Apple has updated its App Store Marketing Guidelines and is now advising developers against using images of the gold iPhone 5s in their marketing materials. According to the new rules, apps carried on the App Store can't feature screenshots on gold iPhone 5s devices nor can such shots be used in other materials used for marketing communications.

Developers should "feature only the most current Apple products", the updated guideline notes, specifically mentioning the following finishes or colors: iPhone 5s in silver or space gray, iPhone 5c in white or blue, iPad Air in silver or space gray and iPad mini in silver or space gray...