The iPad is the hottest tablet on the market, and according to industry researcher IHS iSuppli, it will dominate until at least 2015. Not only is Apple’s product the most popular in the market, but it also has the most effective advertising campaign based on a new study.
Ace Metrix, a company that tracks television advertising effectiveness, found that out of the 35 tablet ads over the past year, Apple proved to be the winner of the most effective marketing campaign. The company looked at ads from Acer, HP, Blackberry, Samsung, Amazon, Motorola, and Apple, of course, among others.
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As Jack McKee, the company’s head of marketing explained to us, it calculates an Ace Score based on the data it takes data from surveys. The Ace Score, specifically, looks at the watchability and persuasion elements of an ad. This score helps advertisers understand and predict how effective their ads are and will be in the future.
Using this score, Ace Metrix found that while Apple was clearly the overall winner for its 5 ads this year, Samsung had the single most effective ad with its “Feel Free” ad promoting its Galaxy tablet.
McKee told us that Samsung borrowed some of Apple’s tactics with its winning ad by focusing on the features. He said that the company had tried to prove it had a better product than Apple did in its previous ads.
What’s especially interesting about this study is the fact that several of the tablet makers scored above normal. In fact, even HP, which recently announced that it was pulling out of the tablet space, showed a really strong marketing effort. The company actually aired more TV ads than any other tablet maker this year, but their marketing efforts couldn’t save the tablet.
The tablet space is extremely competitive and the marketing effort of these companies only reaffirms this notion.
“We rated over 1,300 ads in the tech category alone,” said McKee. “That is just an amazing amount of competition.”
He went on to say that he doesn’t foresee Apple losing its top spot going forward. Even with Steve Jobs’ resignation, he believes that Apple is very effective in demonstrating its products in a simple way that shows consumers how their lives could be better with their products.
As for the other tablet makers, McKee told us that they would have to increase their efforts if they really want to compete with Apple.
“When you’re out there with a specific message, that message has to keep pace with your competitor’s message,” he said. “You can’t just stick with your initial thought and think that it’s gonna work.”
He advises the others to experiment to find the right formula, but to move fast in the process.
