Global Corporate Image Ads to Be Followed by Product Executions
BOSTON–Digital Equipment Corp. will unveil this week a global corporate image campaign, the first advertising since it consolidated its ad account at DDB Needham this summer.
The five initial print ads feature the burgundy blocks of Digital’s logo incorporated into the headlines, with the tagline, “And get ready to win in a networked world.”
One ad, with the word “Navigate” superimposed on the blocks, shows a convoluted roller-coaster. Copy asks, “How do you make sure the Internet is your company’s path to the future instead of a quick trip to nowhere?” The client’s chief competitors–IBM, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard–are named as alternatives that do not have the combination of services that Digital claims to provide. Digital claims to rank 12th in total world shipments of computer products.
“I think what we tried to do with this campaign is put Digital in the mental crosshairs of [chief information officers] and managers,” said David Nathanson, creative director at DDB in New York. Nathanson served jointly as copywriter and art director on the campaign with Giff Crosby.
Product-specific executions are slated to break about six weeks after the corporate image ads, said Mary Allard, vice president of marketing communications at the Maynard, Mass.-based computer maker. Broadcast advertising is being considered, but plans have not been finalized, she added.
Allard did not disclose the budget for the campaign, but said the company plans to increase its worldwide spending levels “by at least a third.” In 1996, Digital spent an estimated $100 million globally [Adweek, April 15, 1996].
The campaign breaks in publications such as The New York Times, Business Week and Time.
DDB became the lead agency when Young & Rubicam in New York and the client parted ways. DDB also does the media buying worldwide.
Y&R’s ads had positioned Digital as the company that would take the “monkey” off the backs of information systems managers. –with Rob Lenihan
DDB Breaks New Digital Print Work
