The Itinerant Engineer

Let’s have a look at four marketing campaigns I saw recently.

In only 52 seconds, we see: automatic search completion, spelling correction (in French!), maps, translation, definitions, flight times, and consistently high-quality search results. All useful features, tied together with a compelling storyline about a guy falling in love in Paris.

Photo sharing, eBooks, email, web browsing, movies, and calendaring, in just 30 seconds.

AT&T vs. Verizon 3G coverage (image courtesy of Engadget). AT&T wanted this ad taken down so badly, they actually sued Verizon, claiming it misrepresented Verizon’s coverage (it didn’t).

“The New Busy”. What’s the product? Does it make me busier? Do I even want to be busy? (Personally, I consider busy a four-letter word.)

Good advertising explains how a product satisfies a customer need. The first two ads are powerful because they show nothing but the product. The Verizon ad visually depicts the carrier’s coverage, a major concern to high-end data customers, who tend to be quite mobile.

The Hotmail ad, by comparison, feels like a beer / soda commercial; it tries to be catchy because there’s nothing unique or special about the product. I can’t believe Hotmail is really that bad of a product. This ad campaign is terrible. Someone should get fired for this.