May 29th, 2014

30 Years Later, Apple’s Iconic Ad Still Works for Some

Author

Ace Metrix

 

Call it serendipitous that we chose to have consumers rate this throwback commercial in the midst of Apple redefining what post-Jobs Apple looks like. This year marks the 30-year anniversary of Apple’s iconic ad “1984,” which announced the release of the original Macintosh computer during Super Bowl XVIII. Despite its place in the pantheon of television advertising it was no gimme. In fact, Apple’s board didn’t like the ad, and it nearly didn’t air. Time and distance allow us to safely say that they were on the wrong side of that argument. So successful was the Ridley Scott directed ad that it was reprised in 2004 (its 20th anniversary) to feature the Apple iPod.

Our 21-35 demo scored the ad highest (651) with the men outscoring the women by 5.5%. Nostalgia is hardly playing a part in these high scores considering this demographic would have been, at most, 5 years old when the ad debuted.

As we could have guessed, those who claimed to have seen the when it originally aired provided the ad with the highest Ace Score at 711.

For those respondents for whom the ad was new (52%), they only awarded the ad an Ace Score of 541, below Apple’s norm, the category norm and the overall norm. In short, if you missed it the first time, it didn’t have nearly the impact.

We asked consumers whether“1984” was better, the same or worse than Apple’s current ads. While looking at the three other #TBT’s we’ve done, it would appear that nostalgia does color the scores, with the most consumers (47%) indicating the “1984” ad was better than the current offerings. On the other hand 21% of the respondents prefer Apple’s commercials today.

The strongest component for the ad was Attention, earning a 717, 13% above the current rolling 90-day norm for the Computer Hardware category. Perhaps just as significantly, this vintage ad earned the strongest Attention score of any Apple ad to air this year, besting the iPhone 5S’s “Gigantic,” Apple’s best performing ad of the year.

It is really interesting to compare and contrast this breakthrough creative from a company with literally nothing to lose (Apple’s market share at the time of the ad was minuscule) with the Apple today that boasts a market cap of $547 billion and has traded places with its target, IBM, in the eyes of its competitors. All in just 30 years.

As always, don’t hesitate to tweet other #TBT ideas to us @ace_metrix.

AD TITLE

{{ title }}

BRAND

CATEGORY

{{ category }}

AIR DATE

{{ date }}

ACE SCORE

{{ rank }}

Scroll To Top