Watching TV recently I saw an advertisement for Sprint's wireless data service. If you've watched television over the last few days you've seen it too. The ad features two cowboys facing off in a bar, drawing pistols. One cowboy is much faster than the other, and is able to slap the other cowboy and draw on him before the other cowboy can respond. What this has to do with high speed data transfer is beyond me.
Let's look at a few key elements of marketing to see how the ad fares:
Who's the customer for high speed wireless data cards? Most likely, buyers are going to be owners of small businesses or corporate buyers who purchase the cards for their sales force or mobile executives.
Who is targeted by this ad? Clearly not serious business users who won't see much business value in an ad about spaghetti westerns. Clearly not women, who I doubt will be drawn to this ad either. The ad seems to target men 18-34, who probably aren't the primary buyers of this product.
What does Sprint want you to know? On their website, Sprint tells you in plain english that their claim is that their wireless data network is larger than Cingular's and up to five times faster. These are both good, defensible claims that get overshadowed in the ad.
Where's the sizzle? If I'm right about the buyers primarily being corporate buyers for sales teams and mobile executives, all the claims are right, but these are FEATURES. The benefit is left to the imagination of the listener. Seems like these benefits should translate to significantly lower bills from wireless usage, and more productive sales teams and mobile executives who can work from any location. Yet these benefits are not communicated in the ad.
What does Sprint say? "The ad using actual spaghetti western footage comparing Sprint’s mobile broadband network to Cingular’s EDGE network very clearly depicts how Sprint is empowering customers to do more, at five times the speed of Cingular’s EDGE network."
My take: Sprint and its marketing partner completely missed the mark and will need to do a much better job next time. A spaghetti western theme for a product meant to improve business productivity that does not call out or help the buyer understand the benefits when they seem fairly obvious is inexcusable. If Sprint's claims are true, it has a huge advantage over Cingular and should not camoflage that message with some silly western quick draw. A slightly more boring but more communicative ad could show two busy sales execs working on their laptops in an airport lounge while over their heads bubbles track the cost of their work. This would communicate value to the buyer, bring the message home more quickly and tie directly to the strongest benefit Sprint has.
what's the name of the actual movie this seen came from??
Posted by: G DE FRONSAC | October 20, 2006 at 02:51 AM
The film clip is from a western movie "They Still Call Me Trinity".
Posted by: Bob | January 17, 2007 at 09:03 PM