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STATES CHRONICLE – Investing in a new personal computer has gone way out of style ever since the dawn of the smartphone and tablet, but some of the biggest players in the industry have made it their mission to make the PC popular again with a quirky advertising campaign.
The $70 million they have put in the marketing push might do the trick, as the industry tries to highlight just how improved PCs are thanks to the new technology that has propelled the smartphones and tablets to become so popular.
PC sales have been languishing for a while now, so much so that it has caused rival PC makers – such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell and Lenovo – to partner up with Microsoft and Intel. The result is a series of ads that don’t promote specific brands, but instead unite under the slogan, “PC Does Whaaat?!”
It’s not an unheard-of concept, as beef and dairy products have already run campaigns praising the benefits of their products in a similar manner. The PC marketing push will tout the increased flexibility of laptops thanks to the slimmed down shape, higher resolution – and often touch – screens, more powerful chips, and longer-lasting batteries.
Keyboards can become detached from screens in many models, switching from laptops to functioning as tablets. Powered by Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 10, most of the new PCs are said to be rid of the old bugs.
Steve Fund, Intel’s head of marketing, said this innovation spike is the perfect environment for the story of the PC to be retold. He added that most people are unaware of the incredible journey the PCs have made this far, and they don’t know the market now offers something better than good enough.
Scheduled to start on Monday, the new campaign will feature online ads but also TV commercials broadcast on major networks. The timing isn’t random either, as the participating companies – set to split the $70 million cost of the campaign – hope to woo holiday shoppers into turning to PCs once again.
According to Patrick Moorhead, a technology industry analyst, the ads’ primary targets are consumers who haven’t invested in a new PC in the last four years – an estimated audience of roughly 400 million people.
Ever since smartphones and tablets have become able to assume most of the tasks that previously required laptops and desktop computers, PC sales have dramatically gone down. The slide wasn’t reversed by the recent release of Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system, as the company hoped it would happen.
Image Source: Microsoft Newst
