Wow, did they think of that all on their own? It may not get any more unoriginal than this.

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The simulated flash experience, which Greystripe is dubbing Rich Media Flash Ads for the iPhone, is split into two products. The first called GS.Impact claims that it “offers all of the creative power of Flash on an iPhone, allowing brands to extend any online advertising campaign directly into mobile.” The second, called GS.Tailgate claims it gives potential advertisers “the ability to create miniature advertiser branded games in flash as pre-post or interstitial into existing iPhone games.”

Unilver’s Axe bodyspray (a male grooming product), was the first product to push a full-scale three month long ad campaign using GreyStripe’s flash simulation. The company wanted to directly target and “speak to” its 18 to 24 year old audience of men, but they didn’t want to use standard conventional channels. As RCRWireless notes, Axe wanted to take one of its proven digital web assets and turn it into a mobile game capable of running on the iPhone. Axe decided to take “Dirty Night Determinator”, a Flash-based game and integrate it with GreyStripe’s products in the hopes of reaching those 18 to 24 year old iPhone users.

“Consistency in messaging is always a priority for any brand, and Axe is no different,” explained Shane Kent, brand manager for Axe Personal Wash, “Axe … likes to be the first to flirt with new technology.” Continuing on he explained that Axe wants to try and stay innovative while giving consumers “something unexpected, as opposed to static ad that gets lost in the clutter.” In December, Axe became the first advertiser to deploy a full-scale advertising campaign using GreyStripe’s Rich Media Flash Ads for the iPhone, and the results are interesting.

Effect on Users

After consumers interacted with the Flash based game, consumer intent to purchase a shower product called the Axe Detailer, skyrocketed 15%. According to a ComScore survey, the percentage rate of interested consumers shot up to 74% from 59% prior to the campaign.

Overall, the interactivity of the entire campaign may be enough to compel future advertisers, especially those stuck in a rut due to the current economy. In ComScore’s numbers, they also found that 56% of the people who actually interacted with the ad campaign were more likely to buy the product, as apposed to 35% who saw it, but did not interact with it. Further, from those that took the time to interact with the ad, 64% said they felt “more positive” about the brand after playing the game.

The Actual Campaign

Impressively, the ad campaign served a total of 3 million impressions according to GreyStripe. In the “Dirty Night Determinator” the game showcases a product akin to a loofah for men. When iPhone users click through the ad-based game, they can determine how “dirty their nights were” by using a drop down menu. Based on the information a particular user will provide, the game will then determine which body parts need the most scrubbing while providing tips on how to clean.

Of the 4,000 people that took part in the effectiveness survey, 943 fell into the control group which means they did not see the ad. 2,447 claimed they did see the ad, and 126 people actually interacted with the game.

There has been a lot of recent discussion surrounding Apple’s iPhone and the possibility of Adobe porting Flash over to the device. Based on a short quote from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Adobe has been trying to work all angles in convincing Apple to allow Flash, or a version of Flash to run natively on the iPhone. Executives from Adobe have made public comments in the past explaining that Apple and Adobe are “working together” on porting Flash over to the iPhone. Unfortunately, this is highly unlikely given Apple’s stance on, well, nearly everything.

Besides the iPhone being underpowered (at the moment), Flash would open the doors for new malware, invasive advertising, user interface manipulation, and the possibility that developers could potentially bypass Apple’s App Store arrangement. None of this seems like anything that Apple would be interested in.

You can check out GreyStripe’s explanation and flash demo here.

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Apple’s ‘Get-a-Mac’ campaigns were getting slack for losing focus a while back. Many people believed that Apple had been spending too much efforts on slandering Microsoft and Vista. These two new commercials should breathe some new life into the ‘Get-a-Mac’ campaigns as they make light of PC guy and Mac’s “little differences.”

As TUAW notes, you can watch both commercials on Apple’s website as well.

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While not the first time, another iPhone 3G commercial has been banned from ever airing in Britain because of misleading claims about network speed and performance. Back in August the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK pulled an Apple iPhone 3G add claiming it “over-hyped the Internet capabilities of the smart phone.” Similarly, UK’s ASU has pulled this one as well. Apple UK has defended their commercial by claiming the commercial to be “relative rather than absolute in nature,” while explaining that they had “clearly positioned the content of the ad as a comparison of the new 3G iPhone with its 2G predecessor.”

“Apple also added that “the average viewer was a mobile phone user and would have understood that a device’s performance varied due to several factors.” Plus, they included the disclaimer “network performance will vary by location,” which the company said underlined the potential for performance variations.” (via paidContent.org)

Black Friday Deals Have Begun

MacRumors explains how to sift through the mountain of Black Friday deals and rebates. Apple has not officially begun offering discounted products, though historically not much more than a $100 discount has been given on a few certain models.

MacMall has announced their Black Friday sale which will runs from now until midnight P.T. on Friday, November 28th. Last year’s MacMall sale delivered some of the largest discounts available online. This year, however, MacMall faces stiff competition from BestBuy who is offering a number of $100-$150 instant discounts on Macs. This compares favorably to MacMall which tends to combine both instant discounts and rebates.

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The new webpage is titled “The new Macbooks. The world’s greenest family of notebooks.” It compliments other efforts by Apple to show off their environmentally friendly approaches towards design.

When we redesigned the new Macbook, our designers and engineers set a goal of making not only the greenest notebook Apple ever produced, but the greenest family of notebooks. So every new Macbook has been built using materials that are highly recyclable and free of many harmful substances present in other computers. Apple engineers also designed the software and hardware to work together, in order to maximize energy efficiency and minimize the carbon footprint of the MacBook. Even the packaging was reconsidered and reduced, so there would be smaller boxes to ship and less material to recycle. The result is exactly what we hoped for: the greenest family of notebooks ever made.

Read – The New Green Macbooks
Read – Apple and the Environment
Read – Apple 2008 Environmental Update
Read – Environmental Performance 2008
Read – Steve Jobs Letter, “A Greener Apple”

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Lindsay Blakely over at Bnet has dug up some numbers regarding Apple’s entire annual advertising budget, and when compared to Microsoft’s annual ad budget, it’s a rather surprising find.

According to Apple’s recent 10-k filing, the company spent $486 Million on advertising in fiscal year 2008. This may perhaps be more than most people would have estimated, however Apple’s push with Leopard and the iPhone 3G has been massive. Not to mention how hard they’ve been touting the iPod touch as a gaming device. Comparatively, Microsoft’s “Vista only” advertising budget was $300 million, while they spent $1.3 billion when combined with everything else (Xbox, Office, Windows, enterprise).

It’s important to point out that Microsoft is a much bigger company. When comparing these advertising budgets, Microsoft’s $300 million was specifically allocated towards advertising Windows Vista, which is in direct competition with Mac OS X. Apple’s $486 million was spent on advertising everything the company has to offer. Which comparatively cost Microsoft around $1.3 billion.

TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld seems shocked that Apple spends so much money on advertising. However when marketing products such as OS X, the iPhone 3G and the iPod touch, $486 million doesn’t seem like an exorbitant amount of money. The $300 million Microsoft spent on trying to “change Vista’s image,” seems like an astronomical amount of money to spend on a campaign which has had very little effect in actually moving copies of Vista. The difference between both approaches garners varying results among consumers. A quarter into Leopard’s launch, 19% of Apple customers had installed the new OS. More than a year after Microsoft released Vista, only 13% of its customers had upgraded. Microsoft has even had to deal with reissuing copies of Windows XP, Vista’s successor, because of the dissatisfaction with Vista. A problem Apple has never had to face. Arguably, Apple’s customer base are the most devoted and loyal, however those same customers would be the first to point out flaws in Apple’s products.

Both advertising campaigns have their flaws. While some may find Apple’s commercials to be childish and too aggressive, focusing more on thrashing Vista, then touting OS X. Others may find Microsoft’s commercials to be completely irrelevant and totally out of touch.

When comparing both advertising campaigns and budgets to each other, it’s difficult to determine which one is more “effective.” Both attract eyeballs, which is essentially any advertising campaign’s ultimate goal. Whether you love the PC commercials, love the Mac commercials, or don’t care either way, the campaigns were a big part of technology culture this year.

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Although the entire document is actually a very interesting read, if you simply don’t have the patience or nerve to skim through the entire 93 page document, major notes of interest are listed below.

Whether you are a modest shareholder in the company, investor, loyal fan or have been getting interested in the company policies and practices, the annual SEC report is a good chance to get “in-the-know” on actual numbers and performance results directly from Cupertino.

• Employees: At the end the year, the company had about 32,000 full-time equivalent employees and an additional 3,100 temporary equivalent employees and contractors. That increased tremendously from the year ago period when the company employed 21,600 full-time employees, and 2,100 temps. This may have been driven in part by new store openings. The Company opened 50 new retail stores in 2008, bringing the total number of open stores to 247 as of September 27, 2008.

• On Tony Fadell’s departure: On Monday, we learned that Fadell, Apple’s SVP of the iPod division, was leaving for personal reasons. In his new role, he will serve as special advisor to Steve Jobs. Fadell will receive a salary of $300,000 annually, and will be entitled to bonus and other health and welfare benefits generally available to other senior managers until March 24, 2010.

• Advertising and R&D budgets increase: The Company’s R&D budget continues to increase year-over-year. In 2008, it totaled $1.1 billion, increasing 41 percent from $782 million in 2007, which compared to $712 million in 2006. “To remain competitive, the company believes that increased investment in research and development and marketing and advertising is necessary to maintain or expand its position in the markets where it competes…”

• International mix: In 2008, Apple became less dominant on the Americas segment. Although no market besides the U.S. comprised of more than 10 percent of the company’s sales, the Americas segment consisted of 45 percent of revenues, dropping from 48 percent a year ago. Apple breaks-down revenues for Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. In 2008, net sales in Europe increased 40 percent over 2007, but remains 23 percent of total net sales. Japan net sales increased $427 million or 39 percent compared to 2007. Sales in the company’s “other segments,” which includes Asia Pacific, also experienced an increase. Of particular note is iTunes sales in Asia Pacific, which grew by 109 percent.

Other interesting tidbits not mentioned above surround and relate to Apple’s relentless stance on patenting their technology, software and products. The reports explains that Apple is “vigorously defending more than 21 patent infringement cases, 13 of which were filed during fiscal 2008.” The report goes onto explain the outcome possibilities to various legal situations as well as the iPhone’s position in the cut-throat mobile market.

With the June 2007 introduction of iPhone, the Company has begun to compete with mobile communication device companies that hold significant patent portfolios. Regardless of the scope or validity of such patents or the merits of any potential patent claims by competitors, the Company may have to engage in protracted litigation, enter into expensive agreements or settlements and/or modify its products. Any of these events could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s financial condition and operating results.

In early September, we reported about Apple’s ultimate decision to settle and pay $14 million to resolve the 20 outstanding investor derivative law suites over backdated stock options. While a publicly traded company (in the spotlight) such as Apple surely keeps its financials as transparent as possible, Apple will be watched more closely than most.

You can find the entire SEC filing in Apple’s Investor Relations section here.

[MacDailyNews via paidContent.org]

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Hoping to exploit the iPhone as a sales platform, Adweek reports that Google will soon unveil iPhone specific advertisements. According to these reports Google has recently been showcasing these ads in private meetings with ad agencies.

From a technical perspective the Google iPhone ads will be triggered when accessed through the iPhone’s mobile Safari browser. The Google iPhone ad network will then display iPhone enhanced features.

“Ads might use iPhone-specific Google Maps links or Safari’s one-tap dialing. Dialing allows users to place calls by tapping numbers displayed in the browser. For instance, American Airlines could use the new Google option to change a search ad from a call to action to click to one driving a phone call to reservations,” writes Adweek. “Or the ad could highlight the airline’s iPhone-optimized site for booking flights.”

Targeting over 400 million mobile internet users, Google’s Mobile Ads will “distinguish the iPhone as a specific platform of interest and leverage the iPhone’s high-end audience with its key demographics.”

[ArsTechnica]

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A new section of Apple’s website dedicated to the initiative states, “Take your student on a Field Trip to an Apple Store for an unforgettable learning experience. (via AppleInsider) On the Field Trip, students can create something amazing right on the spot. Or they can bring in a project they’ve already created and turn our store into a theater, sharing their achievements with parents, teachers, and friends.” Apple even asks the teacher to name a “School Champion” who can gather and present their school’s content, help distribute invitations to the event, and act as the key contact for the Apple Retail Store hosting their Field Trip. In exchange, the School Champ gets a complimentary one-year “One to One” personal training membership.

The obvious goal is to bring in younger customers before the holiday rush to add a shiny new iMac to their ever-growing Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa wish list. It is just an extra bonus that the “School Champion” will eventually become the newest volunteer Mac Genius.

Note to teachers of K-12 out there: Apple will be taking reservations for the 1-hour Field Trips here in the US and Canada starting November 21st. So be sure and get those permission slips sign, sealed and delivered.

This is how I see it going down:

Teacher: “Okay kids, be sure to get your permission slips signed for the upcoming field trip. It is gonna be a good one. You won’t want to miss out. It’s going to be a real treat”

Student #1: “Where are we going?”
Student #2: “Disneyland?”
Overachiever #1: “The modern art museum?”
Student #3: “The new Cirque de Soleil?!?!?”

Teacher: “No kids. This year, we ave been invited to explore THE APPLE STORE!”

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Because Apple’s iPhone is so overwhelmingly successful, and dominant in the touchscreen space, companies use the word “iPhone” to garner attention. “Hey! Look at Me! I can beat the iPhone!” Even Apple marketed their new iPhone 3G as the “first phone to beat the iPhone.” So whether Nokia’s tube (S60) is actually on par with Apple’s iPhone is besides the point, it’s the attention and buzz that they’re after.

Not only will calling the device an “iPhone killer” get Nokia a post like this on an Apple website, but it’ll call out for direct comparison, elevating the device into the “elite” status, where they want it. So, the tactic works. Although shameless and very unoriginal, its standard practice in the business world, and Apple should be used to it by now.

Below is the original commercial Apple aired marketing the
new iPhone 3Gas the “the first phone to beat the iPhone.”

Nokia will unveil its first touch-screen phone next week in a direct challenge to Apple’s successful iPhone, two industry sources told Reuters on Friday.

Both sources said Nokia would unveil its new phone — code-named “Tube” — on Oct. 2 at an analyst and media event in London. A Nokia spokeswoman declined to comment.The phone is extremely important,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. “We have been waiting for the market leader to respond to Apple’s iPhone for a year and a half now. There is a lot of pressure on Nokia, Tarmo Virki reports for Reuters.

Nokia, which has a strong track record in the lower-end handset market, said in July its touch-screen offering would come this year and be cheaper than rival models in order to tap into a higher-volume market. “Taking into account the attention Apple has got, and good sales of LG and Samsung touch-screen phones, Nokia has to be there,” said Pohjola’s Rauhala. “As there is demand, there is no reason to leave it for rivals.”

Below is the full video that originally sparked the Nokia ‘tube’ controversy.
It’s a Q&A with Nokia Executives where they get drilled about “Copying” innovation.

While Nokia is marketing the device as a completely touch screen device, it’s uni-touch, not multi-touch. Which means you won’t be doing any of that fancy map zooming and scaling that you can do on the iPhone. Overall the S60 or “tube” or whatever they call it, is blatantly just a degradation of innovation by Nokia. Physical feedback, such as having the device vibrate is not a “killer” feature that will force users to switch. Which makes us wonder, with the Nokia S60, the Instinct, the HTC Diamond and Diamond Pro, is there anything that is “iPhone killing” about any of these? Maybe if you put them all together you’d have a contender.

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