Palm Pre Online Ad Campaign Effective in Reaching Key Consumer Segments and Generating Early Interest
July 17 2009 - 11:59AM
PR Newswire (US)
iPhone 3GS Launch Also Drives Gains in Search Activity and Site
Visitation RESTON, Va., July 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore,
Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today
released an analysis of recent online trends related to the June
debut of the Palm Pre. Launched on June 6, the Pre debuted as the
flagship device on Sprint, in coordination with Sprint's innovative
"Now Network" marketing campaign. Offering the newly designed WebOS
operating system, a touch-screen, and a sliding keyboard, the Pre
represents Palm's effort to remain competitive in the smartphone
market. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO) Sprint's
"Now Network" Campaign Goes Digital Buzz surrounding the Palm Pre
began building up in earnest during late May with the launch of
Sprint's "Now Network" ad campaign. Winning the top award at the
56th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (IAF), the
campaign ran in print and on TV, but also delivered its message of
connecting customers to information on-demand through an extensive
online ad campaign. One of the more unique aspects of the digital
ad campaign was a YouTube.com homepage takeover in late May. The
ad, dubbed the "Human Clock," featured a mash-up of user-submitted
videos. For instance, at 11:14, the "Human Clock" ad would display
four different videos of people displaying the 1's and 4's needed
to represent the time, similar to a digital clock. (See the
following blog post on Mashable.com for a more detailed description
of the campaign:
http://mashable.com/2009/05/12/sprint-youtube-campaign/) Ad Exposed
Visitor Profile for Sprint "Human Clock" Campaign on YouTube.com
May 24, 2009 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source:
comScore Marketing Solutions Percent of Exposed Unique Visitors
Gender Male 63% Female 37% Age 18-24 37% 25-34 16% 35-44 29% 45-54
15% 55-64 2% 65+ 2% The ad reached approximately 13 million people
on the day the advertisement debuted, with the gadget-crazed 18-24
year old male demographic representing a significant portion of the
exposed population. More than one-third (37 percent) of people
exposed to the ad were between the ages of 18-24 and more than 60
percent were male. In conjunction with other online and offline
advertising, this renewed interest in Sprint helped to generate
early buzz for the Palm Pre. Palm Pre Search Buzz Trends in the
number of weekly searchers on terms relating to the Palm Pre
suggest that the "Now Network" advertising campaign conducted by
Sprint during the second half of May helped generate early interest
in the device. The number of searchers more than doubled during the
week ending May 24, coinciding with the YouTube homepage takeover.
Interest declined somewhat during the following week, but rebounded
in the two subsequent weeks after the official launch of the
device, with 267,000 searchers for the week ending June 7 and
361,000 for the week ending June 14. The final two weeks in June
saw the numbers of searchers fall to approximately half the number
of the peak week of activity. Weekly Unique Searchers on Palm Pre
Related Terms Week Ending 5/10/2009 - Week Ending 6/28/2009 Total
U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore Marketing
Solutions Week Ending... Unique Searchers for Palm Pre (000)
5/10/2009 92 5/17/2009 83 5/24/2009 216 5/31/2009 140 6/7/2009 267
6/14/2009 361 6/21/2009 183 6/28/2009 163 Interestingly, this
decline in Palm Pre search activity coincided with the launch of
the Apple iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17 and launch of the iPhone 3GS two
days later. Throughout May and the first week of June, the number
of unique iPhone searchers remained fairly consistent at
approximately one million people per week. In the week prior to the
launch of the 3GS, however, the number of iPhone searchers more
than doubled to 2.3 million people during the week of the launch.
The Palm Pre appeared to resonate with a different audience than
those interested in the iPhone. Of the people who searched for Palm
Pre-related terms during the eight weeks of the study, just 11
percent also searched on iPhone-related terms, suggesting that the
majority of the people interested in the Pre have little interest
in the iPhone. Using Online Campaigns to Drive Offline Sales While
product-related search activity can offer a proxy for consumer
interest in the devices, traffic to online store locators where the
devices can be purchases likely indicates a higher degree of
purchase intent. comScore examined the impact of the respective
device launches on traffic to the online store locator features at
ATT.com and Sprint.com to understand how such intent may have been
impacted. The week the Palm Pre launched, Sprint.com experienced a
42-percent increase to 137,000 visitors to its online store locator
page, followed by a 41-percent jump to 193,000 visitors the
subsequent week. Meanwhile, the AT&T find-a-store feature on
Wireless.ATT.com, saw traffic jump 90 percent to 295,000 visitors
during the week of the iPhone 3GS launch. Weekly Visitors to
AT&T and Sprint Store Locators Week Ending 5/10/2009 - Week
Ending 6/28/2009 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore Marketing Solutions Week Ending... Unique Visitors
(000) AT&T Store Locator Sprint Store Locator 5/10/2009 113 102
5/17/2009 178 87 5/24/2009 138 113 5/31/2009 105 97 6/7/2009 141
137 6/14/2009 155 193 6/21/2009 295 125 6/28/2009 227 125 About
comScore comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) is a global leader in
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http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: comScore, Inc. CONTACT:
Andrew Lipsman of comScore, Inc., +1-312-775-6510, Web Site:
http://www.comscore.com/
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