Kindle ads I’d like to see #1
I love my Kindle, but I don’t love the advertising.
Oh, I liked the first ad…the one that won the contest with the stop motion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5Jr0QWNMA
It was charming, and I liked the song. The ad didn’t tell you much about the device…that’s kind of a negative. The ad was about reading, really. That was good..it equated the Kindle with the imaginative journey of literature.
The second commercial just didn’t catch me as much.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/17/PERiTMZ626M
It was really just one story…the first one showed the variety, this one didn’t.
The third commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/16/sBgnrouBkjw
brought back some variety. Still, it didn’t tell us anything new. It didn’t do the imagination thing as well as the first one…it felt like a bit of a retread.
I did like the fourth ad, the one with two people on the beach. It still didn’t show us much: it pointed out the ability to read in bright light. I liked that it was two people who knew each other…suggesting the multiple Kindle household.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/15/R8GpHifZO3M
Then, there was the (in)famous pool ad:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/14/HGmRKSds9OY
I didn’t like that one at all, although it got a lot of coverage. I didn’t like the character of the Kindle owner (seemed too snarky), and I didn’t like that it was essentially an attack ad (on the iPad). I want to like the people who have the products I’m supposed to want in an ad…I wouldn’t hang out with this person. The beach ad had shown the bright light legibility of the Kindle without making iPad owners look stupid.
The Kindle park ad
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/13/lmo9xmLGKlI
was nice and simple, and did what a lot of ads do…they sell serenity. That’s something people want…quiet, relaxed time. I remember becoming aware of that with a truck ad. Those used to show the trucks flying over obstacles, hauling big loads, that kind of thing. I think the ad showed the truck on top of a mountain…not moving. The driver was kicked back, I think outside the truck, just relaxing. “Buy our truck, stopping thinking about work for a while.” That’s a good take for the Kindle…but the ad still doesn’t show you any of the features. I also thought it was a tad odd that the actor (also, as in the previous ads, a “young beautiful” person) was in the park…but they promoted the $139 price at the end. Of course, you can read in the park after you download at home or at a wi-fi hotspot, but it’s the 3G model that has an advantage in the park. Still, I can understand them using the lower price.
The first Kindle holiday ad
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/12/kqt9TixU7EA
was nice. At last people outside the twenty-something demographic. 😉 It showed a kid getting a Kindle, and went back to showing us the wide range of reading possibilities. Nothing about what the Kindle does, though, outside of reading. I wonder if they are worried about complicating the device in the ads?
The second Kindle holiday ad
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/11/DQKNxHo9bpA
was most memorable for many people for the dog licking the device. What did it tell us? Kindles can go everywhere with you. That’s a good message. I wasn’t crazy about them showing somebody putting a Kindle in a back pocket, though…sit down with that, and the Kindle is toast. Still nothing about what makes the Kindle better than a paperbook (it’s better in some ways, worse in others).
The third Kindle holiday ad
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/10/k1UyeodPJcU
was back to Annie Little and the stop motion. It was okay…I don’t remember seeing it much, though. I notice at the end that it lists the price in pounds…maybe it was shown more in the UK?
There were two versions of the “What if you switch?” ad:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/15/L2x6046zzJ8
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/16/gROe-7EQncU
It did show the reading apps, which is important. It’s good for people to know that they still have access to their books, even if they stopped using a Kindle. They acknowledged the iPhone: good move. However, we continue to be in the Logan’s Run world: apparently, after you turn thirty*, you are eliminated from the Kindle advertising universe. 😉 Just kidding, there was a person older than that in the first holiday ad, but they certainly seem to be trying to show it as young and hip.
In the Our New Amazon Kindle ad
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/17/xIj5lpFQIK8
they are young active people. I practically expected to see Levi Meeuwenberg run up a wall, flip off a building, and do a complete parkour routine…while reading Justin Halpern. 😉 It gave us a bit more information (like the battery life), and showed a kindler, gentler put down of iPad users. That was an improvement, but we get it…the people on Friend would have used Kindles…the people on The Golden Girls…don’t exist.
The latest ad
http://www.youtube.com/user/kindle#p/u/18/0vqeXaa1pw8
has that I’m a Mac/I’m a PC feel. It was a cute ad, and did point out another feature (automatic bookmarking). It did seem to ridicule paperbook readers, a bit: “You know why you don’t have a Kindle? You’re ignorant.” Ignorant doesn’t mean stupid, it just means you don’t know something. The relationship between the two people was friendly, and that’s good.
I’d still like to see Kindle ads that actually show what makes the Kindle better than just reading a paperbook. When people ask me about my Kindle on the street, they often don’t know about the increasing text size, or the dictionary, or text-to-speech. They don’t know you can highlight and add notes.
Here are a couple of ideas for Kindle ads, and my new suggested slogan. 🙂 That new slogan: “You. Reading.” I want to make it appeal to the viewer personally. I want the slogan to say that it enhances your life…whether you are a heavy reader or a casual reader…whether you are ten years old or one hundred.
Again, to be clear, I’m just making these up:
Kindle: Living Large
Three people who know each other well (friends or siblings) come into a room. There is a low table with three books on it. Behind it is a couch. There is also a funky “tree” on it with three pairs of distinctly different glasses. They each pick up their glasses from the tree one at a time, and sit on the couch next to each other to read. There is some competition for the best sitting spot…getting there faster is better. We see this repeated a few times in jump cuts, with one person always last. One last time, we see the two faster people take their glasses…but the third pair stays on the tree. We/they look to the couch. The slower person is already in the best seat…with a Kindle. We see that person adjust the text size. The other two sit down, and peer over the edge of their books at the Kindle, jealous…
“You. Reading.”
Kindle: Extra Bag Fee
A person is packing for a trip, apparently on an adventure in a remote area. She or he is stuffing a carry-on with books and magazines. It’s hard to do. The packer finishes, balances that carry-on with another couple of bags, and yells out: “Whew! Are you ready? It’s time to go.” We see another person sitting in a chair calmly reading a Kindle. The second person says calmly, “Ready,” puts the Kindle to sleep, and slips it in a pocket. Smiling, the second person takes the handle of her or his rolling suitcase, the other person comes in struggling. The Kindleer says, “Need any help?”
“You. Reading.”
Kindle: Seamless
A Kindle owner wakes up, grabs a Kindle from the nightstand, and starts reading. We see the Kindle owner brushing his or her teeth, reading (it’s a quick shot). Running out to the car, plugging the Kindle into the sound system, and the book is reading out loud. Gets out of the car, runs to catch a bus..keeps sight-reading. At work, puts the Kindle in a drawer. Goes to lunch…realizes he or she doesn’t have the Kindle. Pulls out a phone…starts reading on the Kindle app.
You. Reading.
Kindle: Family, Part 1
Two people in a room, each with Kindles.
Person A: “Hey, I see the next book in the series is out…okay if I buy it?”
Person B: “I already bought it.”
Person A: “Oh, can I read it when you finish?”
Person B: “You can read it right now.”
Person A: “That’s okay…I know you’ve been waiting for it, too.”
Person B: “We can both read it at the same time.”
Person A: “I don’t want to buy two copies…”
Person B: “We don’t have to. We’re on the same account: we can both read it at the same time and only pay for it once.”
Person A: “Really?!”
Person B: “Really.”
You. Reading.
Kindle: Family, Part 2
It’s the same two people as the last commercial.
Person B: “Where are you in the book?”
Person A: “Chapter 3.”
Person B: “I’m on Chapter 4.”
Person A: “Hm.”
Time passes
Person A: “Where are you now?”
Person B: “Chapter 7.”
Person A: “Eight.”
Time passes
A tween child walks into the room where the two adults are reading.
“Mom?”
Person B: “Just a second, honey. Done!” Person B smirks over to person A. “What’s up?”
Child: “A couple of friends of mine were reading that book. I was wondering what you thought about the ending.”
Person B: “I don’t want to spoil it for you…you might want to read it some day.”
Child (pulls out a SmartPhone with the Kindle app showing): “I finished it yesterday.”
You. Reading.
Kindle: Finally
We are at an office retirement party. They are celebrating the retiree. S/he’s given a gift and opens it…it’s a Kindle.
We see the retiree settled in at home. S/he wakes up the Kindle…it opens to War and Peace.
“Okay, Mr. Tolstoy…this time for sure.”
We see the retiree start to read (we might have to skip the first paragraph for the sake of the commercial). S/he mutters: “What’s the grippe?”
We see the Kindle again as the definition comes up.
“That’s not going to stop me this time, Leo…bring it on!” S/he continues reading…chuckling in triumph.
You. Reading.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
May 9, 2011 at 7:44 am |
I love the last one… 🙂
May 9, 2011 at 11:55 am |
Thanks for writing, Szoke!
Great! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
May 9, 2011 at 7:57 am |
The ad agency may think, “Buyers won’t be motivated to buy by a presentation of features. They aren’t rational, and thinking they are makes you an out-of-it left-brained dweeb. They An ad must play on their emotions. Only hipsters like us can do that. (And besides, feature-focused ads won’t win us any ad-industry awards.)”
——–
You (Bufo) have done a very good job of creating a template for an ad series and populating it with some professional-looking examples.
I made a similar but less polished attempt myself, which I posted on the Amazon Kindle discussion forum and then e-mailed to Kindle-Feedback@Amazon.com on Sept. 25 last year. I was suggesting ads that would be only 15 seconds long, that could be produced by amateurs, and that could work effectively even if posted on YouTube rather than being broadcast. (The idea’s free, like all the other ideas I’ve sent them.) FWIW, here’s what I sent:
===================
A Nine-minute Feature-Survey YouTube Ad
I enjoyed the two 4.5-minute ads you have up on YouTube promoting the K3 and the DX, namely:
K3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct2yoTIe5RU&feature=related
DX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQTz96oeaDU&feature=related
However, I’d enjoy them more if they covered all the Kindle’s selling points, not just half of them, and if the spoken words mentioning a feature were accompanied with video of the Kindle’s screen and keyboard performing the action described. These screen-shots would replace the current shots of happy users gazing at their gadget, etc.
At present most potential buyers have read articles and heard discussions about e-readers and the iPad. They are already educated about, and mostly sold on, the concept of an electronic reading device. There are therefore currently few utter neophytes who’d be put off by a feature-focused ad that took-for-granted their basic awareness the general features of e-readers. Viewers would be more offended by soft-sell ads filled with glittering generalities.
What many potential buyers want instead are ads with more specifics, to increase their grasp of the pros-and-cons of the product-choices available to them. At any rate, that’s what I personally wanted to know before I acquired my Kindle. I therefore think such feature-survey videos would be more helpful sales tools, at least for a major portion of the buying public. They wouldn’t be hard to produce, since home-brew “production values” would be acceptable.
It would be possible to break a nine-minute ad up into a series of one-minute ads suitable for broadcasting, each describing a related handful of features. Either a nine-minute ad, or nine one-minute ads, would effortlessly inculcate the message, “It’s Wonderful!”
Here is a list of 50 selling points such an ad-series might include, grouped into nine one-minute blocks (labeled A-I) of related features. The first feature is presented in a 15-second standalone ad, which could be a way of pilot-testing the concept of feature-focused bits:
===========
1. (Introductory musical “bit” – a Kindle-ad “ringtone.”)
“I love my Kindle because …”
(“Reason #1” appears in text in a corner of the screen.)
“… I can hover over an unfamiliar word and its definition pops up. My vocabulary grows daily.”
(The camera view shows a “spotlighted” cursor moving and a “spotlighted” definition appearing at the screen bottom, a few lines below the word. I assume there’s some video-editing magic that can produce this spotlighting effect.)
(A voice-over perhaps reads out the word and its definition.)
“The more you know the Kindle, the better you like it.” (This could be the sign-off for all the ads in this series.)
(Kindle ring-tone signs off. Time elapsed: 10-15 seconds.)
===============
Of course, a single ad can’t:
1. Cover all the Kindle’s attractive features.
2. Educate utter neophytes about e-readers.
3. Inculcate a “feel-good / I-want-to-know-more” impression about the Kindle.
But a series of such selling-point ads could cover almost all the attractive features – and, in so doing, indirectly achieve the 2nd and 3rd aims above as well.
===============
A. The four points that follow are related to the one above because they all have to do with obtaining “more” (in some sense) via the Kindle:
2. “I can magnify pictures when I hover over them.”
(This slips in the point that the Kindle can display graphics, including multi-toned graphics, since such a graphic is what the ad would show being enlarged.)
3. “I can magnify the type for my mom.”
(Ad shows this being done. (Cursor clicks in the ad should be amplified and stylized into a distinctive “boing” sound so they will be recognized as triggering the subsequent on-screen action.))
4. “I can look up the meaning of any word, not just ones in the book I’m reading.”
(Ad shows this being done.)
==========
B. Here’s another group of “selling points,” these ones relating to convenience:
5. “I can read for hours without tiring my eyes, because there’s no screen-glare – no more than there is from a book.”
6. “I can turn a page with just the side of my thumb.”
7. “I can read a book with just one hand.”
(Camera shows the need to hold a regular book in two hands and use two hands when turning a page. Maybe it even shows the reader licking her finger before turning the page.)
8. “I can read in landscape mode if I prefer.”
(Ad shows a book that contains landscape-mode (wide) graphics.)
=============
C. Here’s another batch of convenience-related “points,” these dealing with intra-book navigation.
9. “I can read lots of books at once without losing my place. The Kindle remembers the furthest place I got to in each.”
10.”I can see how far I’ve read in the books I’m reading.”
(Ad shows the darkened dots.)
11. “I can jump anywhere in a book from its table of contents.”
(Ad shows)
12. “I can skip ahead or back a chapter at a time.”
(Ad shows the left- and right-arrow keys in use.)
13. “I can jump to a bookmark I’ve made—and see its context before I do so.”
(Ad shows such a jump from the Notes and Marks screen.)
14. “If I follow a link or visit the Kindle store while I’m in the middle of doing something else, I can’t lose my place. Hitting the Back button retraces my steps.”
===========
D. The following “points” deal with highlights, bookmarks, and notes:
15. “I can make highlights of my favorite passages and turn-down corners, or make bookmarks, on my favorite pages.”
(Ad shows the cursor being moved to create a highlight or make a bookmark (using the double-click method).)
16. “I can make notes in my books too—and all of this without upsetting my spouse!”
(Ad shows a note being typed.)
17. “I can review and savor all three types of annotation later.”
(Ad shows Menu being clicked, then “View My Notes & Marks.”)
18. “My annotations for all my books are automatically collected in a global clippings file where I can do a search for a favorite quotation and find out where it came from.”
(Ad shows the My Clippings file being opened and a search being run for the phrase, “It was a dark and stormy night.”)
19. “My Clippings file is automatically backed up on the Amazon site, so I can’t lose its contents.”
===========
E. This bunch describes certain non-book items that can be inputted.
20. “I can import & read my own Word documents.”
(Ad shows download over the USB cable with the on-screen maneuverings needed to transfer a file.)
21. “I can wirelessly import and read PDFs (without conversion).”
(Ad shows one being read in landscape mode.)
22. “I can import MP3 music & listen to it anywhere without carrying an extra device.”
(Ad perhaps shows highlights of the download procedure.)
23. “I can import & play audiobooks on my Kindle.”
(Ad plays a sample.)
24. “I can subscribe to blogs and periodicals. I get new content pushed to me immediately. And I don’t have to get wet getting my newspaper.”
(Ad shows some of this happening.)
25. “I can ‘clip’-and-save whole articles with a couple of clicks.”
26. “I can even import my own photos.”
(This is described at the end of “Kindle 3 Keyboard Shortcuts,” here:
http://blog.diannegorman.net/2010/09/kindle-3-keyboard-shortcuts-et-al/ )
===========
F. This bunch describes the book-buying process.
27. “After I click on ‘Kindle Store’ [ad shows this] I can search it just like the regular Amazon book store and read reader-reviews. What’s better about the Kindle is that I can download sample chapters from many books and read them later at my ease, instead of one-by-one while sitting at a computer.”
(Kindle screen shows cursor clicking on the “Try a Sample” button.)
28. “I can start reading a book as soon as I’ve ordered it.”
(Kindle screen shows cursor clicking on the “Buy” button, then clicking on the Home button, where the book has appeared within five seconds.)
29. “If I click the Buy button by mistake, I can cancel my order.”
(Kindle screen shows the cursor clicking on the “Cancel Order” button.)
30. “My e-books cost less than paper books”
31. “I can get nearly any current best-seller on the Kindle. Publishers make more e-books available for the Kindle than for other readers.”
32. “My books are backed up on the Amazon site, so I can’t lose them even if I lose my Kindle.”
33. “I can organize my books by categories into folders of my choosing. I can put a book into multiple folders if it spans categories.”
(Ad shows a half-dozen folders, one of which is clicked. (This “point” might be included in the “navigation” bunch that encompasses items 9-14.))
===========
G. This bunch describes web-related points.
34. “If a book or magazine article contains a link, I can click it and go there.”
35. “I can wirelessly tell my friends about my finds and reactions with a few clicks at no charge.”
36. “Wikipedia & Google searching is built in.”
37. “I can browse the web.”
===========
The bunches that follow are the first for which actors would be needed. For the prior bunches animated Kindle screenshots would suffice.
H. This bunch deals with certain “niceties,” or convenience-features, of the Kindle.
38. “My spouse and I can read the same book at the same time and talk about it while we read it. (If we share an Amazon account we both have access to a book that either of us buys.)”
39. “I can fit my reading into my small segments of free time.”
(The camera shows reading being done in a check-out line, a laundromat, a waiting room, etc.)
40. “I can have my Kindle read out loud to me while I’m doing housework or gardening, or traveling (with the earpiece).”
(Ad shows …)
41. “I can read it in bright sunlight.”
(Ad shows the reader in her back yard or front porch.)
42. “I can curl up in bed with it. It weighs only half a pound.”
43. “I can fit lots more books into my existing space.”
(Ad shows a book-stuffed apartment.)
===========
I. This bunch describes travel- and commuting-related features.
44. “I can take a lot of reading with me when I travel. It weighs only half a pound.”
45. “I can carry my books in my purse [or pocket]. I don’t need to carry them in my hand or in a briefcase.”
(Ad shows a guy slipping a Kindle into his inner breast pocket. This is a definite advantage you have over the competition, so make a point of it.)
46. “I can take it on a long vacation without a charger. The battery is good for a month.”
47. “I can download books on the road, from just about anywhere, including abroad.”
48. “I can move all my books without a mover. It holds up to 3500 books.”
(Ad shows someone wheeling boxes of books into a moving van–a red slash covers the field of view.)
49. “It costs as little as $140. That’s less than the cost of another bookshelf for more hard-copy books.”
50. “I can read any book in public without embarrassment.”
(Ad shows a Fabio-type hunk on a florid “romance”-type cover.)
===============
What prompted me to write the above was a thread on Amazon’s Kindle discussion site titled “Do you like the Kindle TV commercials?”
(at http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=TxZM3NG3LIUUIZ&displayType=tagsDetail )
A couple of comments there made me think. They were:
Gilgamesh says:
“the iPad commercial is very impressive. Just the product doing its thing. No people. No other products. If they did something like that with the Kindle, I think it would be a lot more effective than the commercials they have put out so far.”
Seattleite says:
“I find that the commercials do not really communicate what exactly a Kindle is nor what it can do. I would love to see a commercial with real people talking about what they like about their Kindle or how their lives have been enhanced by the e-reader in general.”
As a result, I posted the following:
How about a blizzard of “bite-sized” (15-second) ads? Each ad would have a number, such as “Reason #7 why I love my Kindle.” Each day a new ad would be broadcast. When all had been shown, the sequence would replay. This would keep them fresh.
I followed the text above with about 50 single-sentence selling points. I got the following encouraging feedback, which is what emboldened me to write to you (Amazon):
[Bufo’s note: I’ve removed the comments, because they appeared to be outside Fair Use. They seemed to be the entire comment in many cases. Roger quotes several people who enthusiastically support his suggestions. You can read them where they were originally published here: http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_search_res_ti?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdMsgNo=60&cdPage=3&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxZM3NG3LIUUIZ&cdMsgID=Mx2G78K9KAO3506#Mx2G78K9KAO3506%5D
May 9, 2011 at 12:24 pm |
Thanks for writing, Roger!
I remember seeing that thread initially. 🙂
The general suggestions are good…and I think you are right, they apply more to online than broadcast. I appreciate you saying mine look “professional” and “polished”…I wrote them stream of consciousness style (that’s how most of my posts are done, unless they require significant research…even then, I don’t typically re-write things. I will update them if I get called on something. I know they wouldn’t run the way they are. 🙂
I’m sure there would still be simple emotion-driven ads in the mix…but I’ve tried to tie the feature into an emotion. That’s why I’m bringing in relationships. The first one, three on a couch, shows the ability to enlarge the text…but makes it allow a person to move up in the pecking order. That’s a right-brained attraction. 😉
Yours point out excellent advantages. Some seem geared more to computer people than readers (“hover over”, “magnify”), but you are marketing them to people online, who should be more computer-oriented.
That’s one of the questions here: does Amazon need to sell just the concept of “Kindles are cool” which is what they’ve been doing mostly, or are they selling to comparison shoppers? The answer is probably both. 🙂 I was writing ads I’d like to see…but that doesn’t mean they are going to best at selling the Kindle. I think there should be a mix, personally, of emotion-driven and intellect-driven (sometimes in the same ad).
Thanks for sharing these!
May 9, 2011 at 11:32 am |
Two people sitting on a couch, one with a huge book and the other with a Kindle.
“What are you reading?”
“War and Peace.”
“Oh, so am I.”
“I had to wait months for the large print edition to be available.”
“I just changed the font on my Kindle to Large Print!”
May 9, 2011 at 1:04 pm |
Thanks for writing, Al!
It’s a good idea…I think because War and Peace is public domain (and been in Large Print for a long time), it might take a tweak, but the concept works. 🙂 I also can’t imagine how big a Large Print War and Peace would be. Hmmm…that in itself could be funny…the book is two feet thick, and requires a special apparatus to read it…like a scaffold.
How about this?
We see this huge apparatus with a giant book on it…like Jack and the Beanstalk big. The person reading it has a step ladder, climbing up and down to turn pages. A second person is looking, intrigued by it.
Second person: “What is that?”
First person: “It’s that new annotated War and Peace! It explains all the words and makes it make sense. I had to wait months for the Large Print edition. It cost a ton, but it’s worth it.”
Second person slips a Kindle out of an inside jacket pocket. Second person: “I just read it on my Kindle. I made it Large Print, and I didn’t have to wait…or pay anythng extra.”
First person: “Could I take a look at that?”
Second person: “Sure.”
First person: “Could you help me down? I’m kind of stuck up here.” The second person helps.
You. Reading.
May 9, 2011 at 11:33 am |
I should have said “Two elderly people sitting…”
May 10, 2011 at 1:50 am |
Bufo, great post!
I love the Kindle´s ads since Kindle 1st generation. Oh, My, I dreamed with a K1! 🙂
The current ad is my favorite. The couple has a such chemical, the dialogue is cleaver and happy. I think the actor and the actress will become fixed? What do you think?
I watched this ad about 40 times. 🙂
About that Roger said. The Ipad has a big apple in the rear. This apple makes all the ad that it needs, so, is not necessary show more than the device. Apple is a concept no more a product.
May 10, 2011 at 2:56 am |
Thanks for writing, fabismano!
I do think they may do a campaign with these two…sort of like the “I’m a Mac” ads or the new T-Mobile campaign. I’ve certainly seen some good comments on it.
Interestingly, I do see the Apple ads demonstrating features. Their whole “If you don’t have an iPhone, you don’t have an iPhone” campaign is all about features.
May 10, 2011 at 10:27 pm
I like your “War and Peace” ad; it’s witty and professional.
My gripe with most of Kindle’s ads was that they were so pushing the e-reader-is-cool concept, which wasn’t needed, and SELLING the Kindle, which was counterproductive, because for a revolutionary productTELLING suffices. E.g., for the radical iPhone a feature recital is enough. More would be less. Ditto for the Kindle, which IMO is more revolutionary.
Speaking of Apple, what do you think of this as a company slogan: “Once you bite, you’re bitten”?
(I figure it could be introduced in a print ad, interspersed between the logo-apple above and three or four enthusiastic testimonial-quotes below.)
May 11, 2011 at 12:14 am
Thanks for writing, Roger!
Thanks for the kind words!
I like your slogan. It has some different connotations, but it’s definitely catchy. One connotation: fish bite on the bait…”I’ll bite” has always suggested that to me.
My only question is whether Apple needs to get people to try them…I suppose they always do it, but I think it was recently named the most valuable brand.
Again, though, I very much like the “sound” of it. 🙂
May 12, 2011 at 1:26 am
Hi again, Bufo. Good feedback. Here are my thoughts:
But when people use the colloquialism, “I’ll bite,” the connotation is, “I’m curious enough to inquire further,” not, “I’m gullible enough to swallow anything.” And when people hear that phrase in the past tense, any risky possibility of a hook being involved later on is foreclosed—because “later” has already occurred. So the implication of “After you bite, you’re bitten” is, “After you’ve given our product a trial, you’re satisfied.”
But don’t forget what the “look” of it connotes: I.e., if Apple advertising were to always use the slogan in conjunction with its bitten-apple logo, people would associate biting with “getting a bite of the apple” (i.e., taking advantage of an opportunity) and partaking of the Tree of Knowledge.
Correct—Apple doesn’t need advertising now, or not much—as the company seems to realize. (My slogan would have paid dividends a dozen years ago, though. Too bad I didn’t think of it back then.) But, as long as it’s still paying for advertising in print, the company might as well aim to make it as outstanding as its TV ads, not just “OK.”
——–
But enough about me. I’ve come up with only one good slogan; my other ad-ideas were barely more than feature-recitals.
You’ve come up effortlessly with a handful of ads that have both content and style. Amazon should retain YOU as an advertising consultant and/or one-man Kindle-kibitzer (focus group). You’re here in Seattle, right? It might jolt them out of their slumbers if you were to set up a Lucy-like roadside stand outside their offices. (The implication being that they are as needful-of-help as Charlie Brown. Once they get that point, lots of nickels will surely be tossed your way. (Or maybe slung.))
Actually, every company would benefit from having a Local Lucy—and 95% of them need it more than Amazon. But the reason they need one is the reason they won’t seek one.
May 12, 2011 at 2:30 am
Thanks for writing, Roger!
Your points about your slogan are well made. 🙂 I do think that “I’ll bite” is said a bit ironically, with the sense that you there could be a hook there…but in the past tense, you are quite correct.
Actually, I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area. My Significant Other agrees with you that Amazon should offer me a job. 🙂 I rather like the job I have now, though, and Amazon generally doesn’t acknowledge me (except as a customer, author, and publisher). I don’t get the inside scoop, and I don’t get review Kindles (although I believe some other Kindle bloggers do).
That’s okay, though…I’m having a fun time doing this for you readers. 🙂
My guess is that some people at Amazon read the blog, and that the comments people make here (and poll results and such) may have some influence. I’ve always hoped Jeff Bezos reads it…but I don’t really know.
We do like it overcast…we joke that we are the only people who would move to Seattle for the weather. 😉
May 15, 2011 at 10:11 am |
Not many people know this, but the Pacific NW has the best summers in the country. Not too hot or humid, little rain, clear skies, and often a nice breeze.
As for the rainy season, I heard of a guy who moved here from Texas saying, “I was warned about the rain before I came here, but it hasn’t rained yet!” He meant there hasn’t been a Texas-sized downpour, just a lot of gentle drizzling.
Hmm. I must have mixed you up with one of the other Kindle bloggers who lives here. (I subscribe to 12 Kindle-related blogs.) Maybe I can nudge him into giving Amazon a nudge. Or maybe Abhi can drive down from Vancouver and do so.
I remember seeing a cartoon in the New Yorker that showed a stodgy-looking CEO holding a suggestion-box slip in his hand and saying (through gritted teeth) to a bright-looking young underling something like, “I appreciate your thoughts, Carruthers, but I see no need for a standing committee to review my decisions at the present time.”
I’ve had the same hopes about the extensive and intense comments I left on the Amazon Kindle discussion site. When the Kindles 1 & 2 came out, the following were my gripes, and all but the last have been fixed:
1. No page numbers.
2. Too wide–won’t fit into an inside jacket pocket.
3. No text-to-speech.
4. No folders.
5. —- (I forget what it was at the moment–but it’s been fixed)
6. No e-mail.
OTOH, the Kindle Team managed to ignore an e-mail I sent to their Kindle-feedback@amazon.com address about an important blunder (and a multitude of infelicities and worse) in their User Guide. (You can read about it here: http://mrswizard.blogspot.com/2011/04/kindle-skills-numbers-update.html ) So I’m dubious that adequate attention is being paid.
Maybe if I paid* them …?
(*In peanuts, as befits a person adopting a persona (Dr. Lucy) from that comic strip.)
The Kindle is affecting civilization, so it’s important that it be done right. Amazon is the steward of something bigger than itself. The company should recognize that and be “big enough to be small”; i.e., to “engage with” a Kindle Kibitzers’ Kabal of with-it bloggers and commenters.
May 15, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for writing, Roger!
Clear skies? That’s too bad! We like overcast.
The first time we went to Seattle, it was certainly raining. We went to the zoo (we like zoos), and it was a hard rain. No one else was in line to buy tickets. As we went through the zoo, we saw trees that had blown down. We just figured “Oh, it’s Seattle…it’s raining, that’s normal.” When we got back to the hotel, we found out it was a hurricane…they’d had to close Sea-Tac, and cars had been flipped by the wind! 🙂
May 11, 2011 at 6:55 pm |
There´s a new ad with the couple of friends!
Kindle x Book Round 2 :)[
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=114367811982165
February 9, 2012 at 4:55 am |
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