Motorola gives Apple a run for its (marketing) money

Jan 8, 2015 11:09 GMT  ·  By

Motorola may have lost the battle for smartphone supremacy, but they’re not irrelevant yet. In fact, there’s one area where the company shines brighter than all its rivals, including Apple.

The marketing campaign surrounding Motorola’s new 360 smartwatch, in case you haven’t seen any of the ads, is a stroke of genius. Appropriately headlined “A Watch For Our Times,” the Moto 360 series of commercials is one home run after another.

Each of the ads starts with single-word descriptions of the design features, such as “class,” “beauty,” and “raffinement,” followed by utterly non-complementary remarks regarding the electronic side, such as “burritos” (food order notification) or “Chad” (classy pianist receives a message from douchebag Chad), etc.

My personal favorite is Holiday, which depicts a dashing blond woman putting on makeup to an enchanting piano score, then receives an emoticon-packed message from friend Amy. The voiceover reads out the message in a serious, baritone voice: “Winky face, Martini glass, Party... thing.”

I’ve embedded three of the Moto 360 ads below for your immediate viewing pleasure. Head over to YouTube for the full playlist.

Personally, I find Moto’s campaign far more efficient than Apple’s pretentious watch commercials. Perhaps it’s because the Moto 360 indeed looks like a genuine watch (round, robust, with sharp metallic edges), whereas the Apple device looks more like an electronic gizmo. That being said, Apple’s product is far more promising in terms of functionality, considering it sits at the center of the iOS ecosystem. However, only time will tell what customers will prefer the most.

Still from the Moto 360 ads (4 Images)

Moto 360 ad: Holiday
Moto 360 ad taglineA still from the Pianist ad
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