The Never-Ending Mac vs Windows Debate
My first Apple computer was purchased while at Florida State in about 2005. I got an iMac Desktop and I fell in love quickly. After I got past the differences in the operating system, I realized how much easier it was to use. Even little perks like dashboard and expose were genius to me. A simple way of displaying all your open windows and easily moving from one to the other, and a place to put sticky notes as reminders, ESPN scoreboards for scores and news, weather, etc, were great ways to make life easier for you. The all-in-one monitor was also a huge deal to me. Not having a huge tower getting in your footspace under your desk was an awesome improvement from Windows computers. My second Mac is another newer model iMac, and I plan on buying a new MacBook Pro in the next couple months. The main thing I notice was the newer Operating System on my iMac, Lion. It fixes some of the minor things it could have, and added some cool features. One of these is being able to use spaces which essentially puts different windows and programs into different spaces on your Mac, which lets you swipe your mouse to get to the next space easily.
Apple has been around since the late 80's, and Windows only a couple of years before that. So, there's not a big advantage there. I remember the older apple computers in the 90's, with their bright colors. I didn't actually get on a Mac until I started college in 2005. My friend had bought a MacBook and we also used iMacs in all of my design classes. As stated before, the Operating systems are different, but easy to get used to. But, for some, after being with Windows for most of your life, any change is a big change. But, once you do its definitely worth it. Part of the whole argument for Windows users to switch to Mac would have to be the pricing. These days, there are hundreds of PC's being sold for half the price of any Mac. You're not getting the power that the Macs come with in those cheaper PC's. Mac's always come stock with higher-end processors, aluminum casing, and great battery life. Most PC's can't stand up to Mac, unless your willing to spend the money. Another thing is the selection you could get with a PC compared to a Mac. Mac has the one brand, Apple. Windows has much more to offer, with Sony Vaio's, Dell's, Asus's, Toshiba's, HP's, etc. Macs have a little more straight forward approach, with different screen size choices, etc.
So, I'll leave you hear with this subject. Choose wisely and enjoy your new computer. Take what you will from this blog and others about this never ending debate and make your own decision. Although I'll never go with another Windows doesn't mean I won't be happy with a Windows, I just prefer my Mac.
Mad Men Marketing Making Moves to Downtown
We could not be happier to make this announcement, as it has been our goal since we started this company to end up downtown – and after outgrowing our current offices back in January, the time is finally upon us! We will inhabit a portion of the Holmes Building which faces E. Bay Street, which is significantly larger than our current offices. This move was very strategic to the expansion efforts of our company and acquiring a larger space will ensure our future growth and success.
What makes this opportunity even more exciting, is the fact that the revitalization of downtown is a personal goal of mine, so not only will we now be down there, but we are also now able to directly contribute to bringing commerce back downtown. Hopefully through our excitement and involvement in downtown activities, we can help continue the trend and bring more businesses to the area!
We truly couldn't be happier and look forward to seeing you all – Downtown!
“Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city… Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty… How can you lose..? The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, and go Downtown! ” 😉
Mobile Advertising is Taking Over
Where do you spend your ad dollars? With online usage jumping through the roof the past couple years, advertisers now have to consider this as a means of advertising. After reading an article by Richard Ting on theAtlantic.com I thought about these changes to the advertising world, and was able to put some numbers to it. People are now spending about 10% of their media time on their smartphones, but only 1% of ad-dollars is being spent on mobile ads. To compare this to what is spent on print, people spend 7% of their media time with print, but 25% of ad-dollars are being spent here. Just looking at these numbers, we can see a problem. As we know, print has been on its way out, not only because of the mobile web, but because of the web in general. But these numbers would make you think it hasn't gone anywhere.
More than 2/3 of the time spent on a mobile phone is now used for something other than talking. Mobile is making moves to surpass TV as their main source of entertainment (not to mention that you can now watch some forms of TV on your smartphone). This is the way entertainment is headed and advertising has to move with it.
Spending on the mobile web has gotten much easier. As stated earlier, it isn't just ads on mobile sites anymore, its in between a round of Words with Friends, in between songs on Pandora, and of course there's Facebook. Not to mention, this is still just the early years as far as smart phones and mobile web, we have a long way to go. So, if you haven't already jumped on the bandwagon, now might be a good time to try.
GM partners with Manchester United
This change comes with a change in advertising for Chevrolet to a new advertising agency, Commonwealth. They replace the approximately 70 agencies that have worked on advertising for Chevrolet. They have changed up their thinking and are working to create more effective spending. An example of that is the 20 or so TV commercials pumped out for the Chevy Cruze, when only a half dozen were needed, as stated by Chief Marketing Officer for GM, Joel Ewanick.
Manchester United has long been one of the most popular soccer teams in the world. With 659 million followers, they are easily the most popular club in the world. For example, in a regular season game featuring Manchester United versus fellow EPL great, Manchester City, there was a recorded 600 million viewers, and compare that to the 110-115 million viewers of the Super Bowl in recent years. Looking at these numbers, it's easy to say they made the right choice here.
In other soccer and GM related news, GM has recently announced a plan to donate 1.5 million indestructible soccer balls all over the world (137 countries have already received soccer balls). This is a part of the project One World Futbol which started in 2010.
Advertising and Wall Street
I do not presume to know much about the stock market; however, due to the recent allegations hinting that certain investment bank underwriters supporting the IPO told clients earlier this month that they were reducing their earnings forecasts for Facebook, the social networking site has had quite the tumultuous ride during its opening week on Wall Street. And knowing what we know about the events leading up to this point, it's not very difficult to see the connection.
It is said these investment banks made the decision to sway their investors after supposed conversations with Zuckerberg. According to these reports, Zuckerberg hinted that he was worried his site's value was decreasing because so many advertisers had been pulling out recently, and that Facebook's mobile version was looking to have an even meeker forecast.
So what does this say about the power/affect of advertisers and their monies spent? It looks to me that; firstly, you need to create a sound platform that will ensure a ROI on ad dollars spent. As we have said before, ROI for ad dollars is not something you should expect immediately (consider it more like any other cost to run a business) BUT if over time, as General Motors noticed, you continue to see no return on dollars spent, you could blame it on the outlet, but it could also be as simple as – the campaign just wasn't good enough.. But I digress.
So where does this leave us? I've established two takeaways from this Facebook debacle. One: Where companies choose to spend their ad dollar has a direct correlation with how successful said company/outlet can be. Two: Some advertising platforms are indeed more successful than others, and just because something is “popular” doesn't mean it's always good for advertising. However; the bottom line is, and a point you will notice me making time and time again , you must think of the consumer before anything else, and no matter what outlet you use to get your message across – if you're not talking to them… they're not going to listen!