Ed Brill

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1. 1  Jaime Bisgrove http://jaimebisgrove.blogspot.com | 11/21/2007 12:27:46 PM

   Kudos all around. I think Big Blue may actually be getting it.

1. 2  Steve Tsuida http://www.kryos.com | 11/21/2007 4:32:40 PM

   I'm going to get in trouble for this, but it needs to be said.

   This is awful marketing. Here's why: It's IBM pretending to be people talking about IBM. This is the marketing equivalent of Senator Clinton's recently planted questions. It's somewhere between softball and spray cheese, and Notes 8 deserves better.

   All they need to do to save this is: 1) Scrap this draft of ad and get it off of YouTube immediately. 2) Get out on the street in a Large Eastern City and a Large Western City and candidly film people on the street dropping by a kiosk near a lunch-break venue (maybe Panera or Starbucks), capturing genuine responses on camera. I've seen Notes 8 and I'm pretty sure it'd be easy to capture at least a hundred clips of people's "Wow!" responses and then edit it down to a thirty second raw, incontrovertible FTW sledgehammer of truth in advertising. The exact same message, with the exact same dialogue, but grounded in imagery and sound that the audience can't immediately filter out.

   *Blogmunity. Noun. A community of like-minded bloggers, sometimes cross-linked, and often posting on the same topic at the same time. See: hive.

1. 3  Wayne Weinheimer  | 11/21/2007 5:10:54 PM

   @2 - I agree, but it's better than nothing.

   Steve, maybe you should send IBM marketing the Kryos "We do." storybook. Great job with that!

1. 4  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 11/21/2007 9:28:16 PM

   @2,

   It could be better, but at least it has a positive upbeat approach instead of the negative tone they used in the past IBM Lotus videos I have seen.

1. 5  Steve Tsuida http://www.kryos.com | 11/22/2007 8:55:49 AM

   Thanks Wayne, we're cranking out a 2nd edition this month to reflect all the kryos.com/blackberry stuff that's taking shape.

   What I might do is throw together an animatic and a shooting budget for my street-interview montage concept, and post it to our Podcast.

   Richard, I agree it's better than negative, and I know the stakes are extremely high for Notes 8. We're overcoming skeptical inertia, so perfect is the new good.

1. 6  Chris Blatnick http://interfacematters.com | 11/22/2007 11:22:18 AM

   @2 - I don't disagree that your idea would be excellent, but I think we need to be happy that this is out there at all! It is a fun and upbeat video, something that hasn't always been synonymous with Lotus Notes. Every little thing we do to get the word out is a positive step.

1. 7  Frederic Dahm  | 11/22/2007 12:10:29 PM

   This is good...

   ...But this YouTube clip is even better:

   { Link }

1. 8  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/22/2007 3:51:40 PM

   Steve,

   I am pretty disappointed in that characterization. See this video for what it is -- a step in the process. I don't really see what the downside of this video is, even if you suggest (and I agree) that there should be more videos, including testimonials. I believe we'll have a person-on-the-street type of video sometime early next year. In the meantime, this a good way to quickly highlight why end users should care about Notes 8.

1. 9  Steve Tsuida  | 11/22/2007 4:38:12 PM

   It's not the production quality or the upbeat tone or even the feature demos I take issue with, [Oh I see what Steve's saying!] it's the use of the interjected voiceovers, the "That's nice!" clips that undermine the message by making it look like IBM is giving themselves feedback. [That makes sense. I'm starting to agree.] It cheapens the overall effect and leaves the viewer feeling at the very least prompted, and at the very worst pre-empted. [I hate it when that happens.] "Thats nice" should be the viewer's _internal_ dialogue, not the voiced over dialogue. [Right on! Well said!] Does that sound fair? [You betcha!]

   P.S. the interjected bits in square brackets are obviously meant to be illustrative vs. sarcastic here. [Don't worry, they get it!]

1. 10  Gary Grant http://www.conseq.co.uk | 11/23/2007 2:25:56 AM

   It is better than nothing, but I do think it could be better, primarily the lanugage is not very accessible.

   Two things by way of example.

   -When was the last time anyone you know used the expression "integrated productivity tools" in normal conversation? That phrase is in the first few seconds of the ad. I would not be surprised if you lost 90% of the "average" user audience right there ("oh this thing is some geeky thing for tech heads, that's not me, I'll stop listening now").

   - Another example of what I mean. I would suggest that "from multiple places" is more accessible language than "from multiple sources".

   At the high level, I also agree with Steve, comments from real people are always better than some good looking actor being paid to say wow. Aside from the credibility, they will use language that real people use in every day conversation.

1. 11  Kerr  | 11/23/2007 3:55:26 AM

   You guys must have been really upset when you found out that drinking beer didn't make you instantly attractive to the most gorgeous babes on the planet. I mean, it was in the advert, so it must be a completely true and accurate representation of the real world, mustn't it?

   Gimmie a break!

1. 12  Ethann Castell http://www.caliton.com | 11/23/2007 5:08:48 AM

   I think that this is a fantastic ad. From a marketing perspective it's right on the nose. I think that business users will really relate to it and that it has the potential to lot of non-Notes IT guys stop and take notice. In my mind this ad addresses many of the perceptions about Notes that have hindered it's uptake, or even consideration, in the past. Well done.

   @2 Steve, I'm not sure where you are coming from. Can I suggest that the type of ad that you described may appeal to your tastes, but possibly there may be better ways of addressing the masses. The advertising and marketing folks who put together these ads generally have quite a lot of experience and are fairly skilled at effectively reaching their target audience.

1. 13  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 11/23/2007 9:49:39 AM

   @2 - I don't get that analogy. It is a commercial.

   If it were a live event somewhere in the public and there were shills asking particular questions, then the analogy to Sen. Clinton would be appropriate, but this is far from the case.

   As far a my thoughts on the video itself, a bit cheesy. The format of, "Hey! Have you heard...." has been done many times before, including with some political candidates and issues of all stripes. The theme is also used with a lot of the health and insurance products on TV (think: Ed McMahon and Alex Trebek)

   But it is a step in the right direction, IBM is trying to present Notes as cool. Not sure if this is the right way to do it though.

1. 14  John Head  | 11/24/2007 12:39:13 PM

   I am sorry .. but negative comments about this ad just baffle me. I have forwarded this to customers and they reaction has been great! Is this a replacement for ads that one would see on TV? No. But it is part of this new form of marketing that youtube and myspace and the rest of the net have introduced the past couple years. Viral marketing, which allows the distribution done by the end user, is essential. Would I love to see new ads on TV for Notes 8? Yep ... but I am not going to bet on them.

   This serves the desired purpose very well. The negative comments should just be ignored.

1. 15  Radu Cadariu http://cadariu.blogspot.com | 11/25/2007 12:59:02 AM

   hey, just looking at the clip and an idea broke: could you replace the phrase "new productivity tools" with "new office tools" within the marketing hype ? cause: for the average user, replacing productivity with office will mean something.

   Or, if trademark issues are expected on the word 'office', invent something like IBM@Office. Would be like "new IBM@Office tools". My 2 cents about the impact of words, if I may ...

   thanks,

   Radu

1. 16  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/26/2007 7:43:12 AM

   One connecting point that might be helpful for understanding this video -- there was a similar one when Notes 7 was launched. To me, it was meant to tie those releases together. The old one is no longer on the IBM FTP site, but my blog entry about it was at: { Link }

1. 17  deleted  | 12/2/2007 6:07:40 PM

   Deleted - no anonymous comments allowed.