Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Microvision: Pico Projector Commercial Ads

While reading news from this morning about Microvision’s pricing of 3.3 million additional shares, I ran into this article…

Microvision release range of Pico-projector Ads for SHOWwx
By Ben Robinson on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 2:23 PM PST In Accessories, The Digital Life

Microvision, which is a company that makes Pico-projectors, has released a series of Ads for it’s Show WX product on YouTube , covering a wide variety of social situations – even including two ladies who are out on the town!

In case you are thinking ‘WTF?’, Pico-projectors are portable projector units, that are touted as being the next big thing in Mobile – literally INside them! I’m not so sure if that’s going to happen on a wider scale as it bulks out the mobile device – but I can definitely see the allure of a small projector, IF it produces good quality. Microvision is one of the leaders in that field.

But enough of that – let’s check out some Ads – one embed below, and then some links for you:

Continues with links to five ads…
*****
Here’s the link…
http://www.intomobile.com/2009/11/26/microvision-release-range-of-pico-projector-ads-for-show-wx.html

I looked at those ads and my first reaction was: “these are over two years old and someone should really take them off the air… they are so cheesee and silly”.

I’m not the only one with those thoughts. Here’re some more comments that I have gathered to share with you…

• I hope the quality of creative is not typical of future efforts. Pretty weak, I think, and don’t do justice to the product. Better this than nothing? I'm not sure about that.

• These ads are maybe 2 years old with old prototype of MVIS pico projector...

• I would hope that someone would remove these; they do not do justice to the current SHOWwx. They are filled with wrong information, even to the simple eye.

• Elevator Pitch @ 30 seconds ShowWX he is pointing downward, @ 36-38 seconds his device is in color and the presentation is in Black/White, and the best for last @ 40-41 seconds look at the ShowWX he is holding it backwards with the cable coming out of the top. This very edited stuff and really should not be here.

• They are concept videos. Not intended to be 'real'. Thought that was obvious.

• "...Thought that was obvious..." With a date of 26 November 2009 and the statement "Microvision has made 5 new pico projector ads", why would it be obvious?

• Obviously mediocre, I agree, but "concept videos" don't have to be mediocre, just unpolished. What's more, I've been following Microvision closely for well over two years and this is the first time I've seen them. Still, thanks to invinonveritas for explaining that the videos are, in fact, dated material; that's reassuring to know but less reassuring is the fact that they're still out there posing as current ads, "concept" or otherwise.

• But the statement is in error. These are old videos that were posted to the Microvision about 2 years or so ago. The fake nature of the samples is clear to me - sorry, but if you can't spot cheap special effects, that's not something anyone but you can change.

• "The fake nature of the samples is clear to me." They are not fakes at all. They're just bad, a fact which is not in dispute. If they're old too, that doesn't detract from the fact that they're bad, and that Microvision, if it chooses to promote itself in such a manner in the future, had better do much better. Just as I could have done better by making a portion of its so-called "public" offering available to existing retail investors.

http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/application_scenarios.html
Thought I posted this earlier, but it does not appear to have arrived.

• FWIW, I can second that the "new" videos are old as I remember watching them on the MVIS website over a year ago, and don't know how much longer they could have been on the site before I had found them.

• These videos should be taken-off the air.

• No man down under like this stuff.

• I will admit, that pisses me off watching that....damn it Microvision.

Here’s what I summarize, after having read dozens of comments…

“Take out the drama and just focus on mobility, physical size, image size, image resolution and quality, vivid colors, brightness of laser light source, focus feature, the low power usage, fast refresh rates, 8 point font text readability, short throw ratio [like watching movies on the ceiling], no heat, long laser life and contrast ratio.”

In other words, you can use all the various settings and scenarios… but focus on the features… with emphasis on those features that differentiate your product from the competition.

We know what lamp based projectors are all about and what their applications, benefits, features and limitations are? To embrace the pico projectors to our list of gadgets that enhance mobility is a relatively small leap of vision… since we already know all about bulky projectors. It’s like going from desktop PC to the notebook PC… where the notebook PC opens-up a whole lot of applications and possibilities. Besides, for over a year now, the pico projectors from TI/DLP and 3M/LcoS have been on the market selling from dozens of retail outlets.

You don’t need to spend money or commercial time, to educate the consumer on the benefits and possible applications of pico projectors. Consumer is well aware of the projectors and understands the mobility feature of pico projectors quite well. Besides, competition has been educating the consumer for over a year now. Just because SHOWwx pico projectors is not yet released in the market place does not mean pico projectors don’t exist.

So, please cut the drama and get to the benefits and features… using the various settings and scenarios to accentuate the differentiating features. This way, you will not only get your message across in the least amount of commercial time, but also the consumer will remember the enhanced features of SHOWwx by associating them to the various real life situations and settings.

These five SHOWwx commercials as mentioned here─ and at the Microvision web site are childish, boring, overbearing and done in a very amateurish manner.

Not something that you would expect from a world class company.

Here’s an example of a professionally done pico projector commercial that gets the message out loud and clear… neat… clean… no drama… no spoon feeding… all facts and a lot left to the imagination.

Click on the YouTube streaming video at the bottom of the article…
http://www.notebooks.com/2009/11/30/take-a-pico-at-these-portable-pico-projectors/

Cinemin Swivel got it right... I have to admit.

Anant Goel
http://www.wealthbyoptions.com/

1 comment:

  1. yeah, these early commercials were embarrassing, you got it right, emphasizing all the great features would be much better, even a 30 second infomercial type spot focusing only on features would be better

    ReplyDelete