PC Speaker Firm Sounds Off With Ads in Theaters
Creative Technology Inc. is hoping The Force is with its new advertising campaign.
The Milpitas, Calif.-based marketer of sound cards and speakers for personal computers is running ads for its products in United Artists Theatres equipped with updated audio systems. The ads, which use the deafening roar of motorcycles, appear before screenings of the blockbuster, “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” among other films.
For Creative Techology, whose revenue for fiscal 1998 totaled $1.23 billion, the ads represent a shift in marketing strategy. The company previously promoted its sound cards in magazines read by hard-core technology buffs. But with the Internet emerging as an entertainment medium, Creative Technology is taking aim at a broader audience.
The move by Creative to brand components isn’t new. Intel Corp., for example, made its microprocessors a household name with its “Intel Inside” marketing campaign. But as consumers demand personal computers with greater sounds and graphics capabilities, manufacturers of arcane components are attempting to create a consumer loyalty.
Analysts say the company’s decision to go into theaters, and piggyback on the biggest film of the year, is a smart one. Viewers can’t zap a movie ad, as they do a TV commercial. And the souped-up sound systems in theaters offer the ultimate product demonstration.
“Before, companies would sell through PC and technology publications,” said Jack Geraghty, analyst with the investment firm Gerard Klauer Mattison. “Publications are dry. Any time that a potential customer can experience the product, it has to help.”
Moreover, analysts say, the theater ad helps Creative break through the clutter of look-alike magazine pitches.
“If you look at any of those PC high-tech magazines, there is just page after page of the same old stuff. Unless you are really into it, you don’t know the difference from one product to another,” said Jim Nail, an analyst with Forrester Research. Creative “has found a way to get themselves out of that jammed environment, where everything blends together into one giant, undifferentiated mass of products.”
The move by Creative to brand components isn’t new. Intel Corp., for example, made its microprocessors a household name with its Intel Inside marketing campaign.
Creative’s commercial for its FourPointSurround FPS2000 Digital computer speakers and Sound Blaster Live sound--appearing on more than 1,600 UA screens across the country--is part of a campaign that includes print and online advertising. Creative, along with other companies that make components for personal computers, is trying to develop a brand image in anticipation of a broader market for its products.
San Jose-based 3DFX Interactive, for example, has launched a $20-million campaign for its line of three-dimensional graphic accelerators that includes commercials on MTV, CBS and Fox Sports, among others, and print ads in such magazines as Sports Illustrated and Details. Revenue for 3DFX in 1998 was $202.6 million.
ATI uses radio spots to advertise a multimedia graphics board, called All in Wonder, that allows users to watch television or videos on a personal computer.
Because ATI sells mostly to manufacturers rather than consumers, it doesn’t anticipate boosting its mainstream advertising until demand for specialized components grows. The Thornhill, Ohio-based company reported annual revenue of $107 million in 1998.
“A lot of the mainstream customers don’t understand what is going on inside their PC,” says Jewelle Schiedel-Webb, senior group product manager for ATI. “Owning and using a PC and really understanding what makes it go are two very different things. As the knowledge [about computers] in the mainstream audience grows, it becomes much more interesting for companies like ATI to step into that mainstream area and present products.”
Creative’s ad campaign, which began May 21, comes as the audience for online music services appears to be growing. Last week, America Online, the largest Internet service provider, paid a total of $400 million to acquire two online music companies. One of the firms, Spinner.com, attracts 1.5 listeners a month.
AOL, with more than 17 million subscribers, believes demand for online “radio” will grow as faster Internet connections and improved equipment enhance sound quality. In a survey, AOL found that 15% of its subscribers surfed the Net with a stereo turned on.
Patrick Cosson, senior manager of marketing communications for the U.S. unit of Creative Technology, which has its headquarters in Singapore, chose to advertise in theaters in order to capitalize on cinematic audio equipment that could show potential customers the quality of sound they could receive from their own computers. The movie ad--the first from a tech company to be shown in UA theaters--has two behind-the-scenes links to Star Wars producer George Lucas. It was mastered at Skywalker Sound and created by Complete Pandemonium, a San Francisco Bay Area commercial production company founded by former employees of Industrial Light & Magic.
“It’s a difficult to explain to people who have never opened up their PC why they should open up their PC,” Cosson said. The campaign’s tag line, “The Difference Will Amaze You,” is supposed to signify not only the qualitative difference between Creative Technology and its competitors, Cosson explained, but also the different ways PCs can be used.
“It’s a good buy,” said analyst Geraghty, “because sound will become much more of a differentiating factor in PCs in the future.”
