One of the most viral videos of 2012 was an attack ad.
It was viewed more than 70 million times online, and versions of it ran endlessly on U.S. television, as part of a massive $400 million media spend.
Surprisingly, it didn’t come from a Super PAC or presidential campaign. No candidates were named, no scurrilous charges leveled.
The attacker, rather, was global technology giant Samsung. Its target, Apple and its fans. Its message, simple – you’re not as cool as you think you are, not advanced as you claim to be, you’re not thinking different…the next big thing is already here.
The ad campaign – along with strong technology and a savvy distribution strategy – has helped establish Samsung as the world’s top smartphone seller and one of Apple’s most serious rivals.
Six months have passed, and Apple has yet to directly respond on the air. No counterattack ads have been launched. Silence is their strategy.
In taking this approach, Apple is following accepted wisdom in consumer marketing circles. As a leading brand, don’t bring credibility to an attack. Avoid building awareness for your competition. Eschew getting down in the mud and sullying your own brand.
However, the company’s own history suggests this path is fraught with peril. Apple itself ran one of the greatest attack ad campaigns of all time. Launched in 2006, its “Get a Mac” campaign parodied PC Users by contrasting a hip Mac dude with a hapless Bill Gates look-a-like. The ads mercilessly attacked Windows and by extension Microsoft.
Like Apple now, Microsoft did not respond to its rival’s attacks. At least not immediately. Amazingly, the Seattle giant waited more than two-and-half years to reply. Its response – the “I’m a PC”campaign – was not a counterpunch but rather a defense. And it was too late.
Mac sales, which had been slumping before its attack on PCs, had shot through the roof. Meanwhile, Windows Vista had flopped (of course, technological shortcomings played a large role), and Microsoft’s brand was severely damaged.
Microsoft’s long delay and tepid counter should be a cautionary tale for Apple. In today’s communications environment, brands often need to act like presidential candidates. No candidate worth their salt would allow a massive assault by a formidable rival go unanswered. And that answer would be a direct and aggressive counterpunch, not a defense. Or a lawsuit.
Simply put, when it comes to the Samsung attacks, Apple might need to think different.
And there are signals from Cupertino that a shift in thinking might be underway. Earlier this week, Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller “attacked Google Inc's ‘fragmented’ Android software and its biggest adopter, Samsung,” in an interview with Reuters. Schiller’s remarks came “on the eve of the…global premier” of Samsung’s new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4.
Some will take this as a sign of Apple’s weakness or a move that raises their opponent’s profile – but that sounds like campaign reasoning from the 80s or 90s. In today’s environment, you are either in the battle, or you’re getting beaten.
It remains to be seen whether Schiller’s jab is the first of a series of strategic counterpunches or simply a moment in time.
