There Were These Two Guys

Friends and colleagues of mine will know both of my conviction that the great brands build personal relationships and of my own personal affection for the Apple brand. Both conviction and affection are reinforced in Apple's latest series of Online Ads where the personalities of PC (anxious & neurotic) and Apple (low-key and laidback) are neatly contrasted as they discuss a range of functions and operations:

PC: "I get a little nervous when they mess around with my insides."
Mac: "What do you mean? Isn't it just straightforward?"
PC: "Not really. Like a lot of PC's I have to update my graphics card, my memory card...it's major surgery."

Whilst Apple's strategic brand direction has really only paid off for the company in the last few years, the company has always taken a personal, perhaps surprisingly low-tech approach to its advertising and these ads are worth watching for anyone curious as to how they might capture the drama of a brand's relationship with the customer in their own business.

When Your Bowl Overfloweth

Whilst Superbowl Sunday isn't such a big deal in this part of the world, most of us are aware of how it's as much a centrepiece for Madison Avenue as it is for the ball players (for more brand-related humour, see
Skydeck Cartoons)

I haven't heard yet which ad came out on top in this year's competition but it always strikes me that this sort of scramble for attention offers a distorted take on how best to build a brand (rather like looking to celebrities for tips on happiness). Although Apple's 1984 Superbowl advertisement has become the stuff of legend, the rest of us should probably look to more local and modest successes for examples of campaigns we might reasonably emulate.