Dell launched its first work from new agency Sid Lee today, using the tag “More you” to position the PC giant as a lifestyle brand.
While Dell's ads have historically emphasized product features and price, last November it launched a campaign, “You can tell it’s Dell,” from Wunderman, New York, that addressed both product and consumers. The message behind “More you” takes that even further, focusing on creating an emotional bond with consumers.
“We are talking about people and how technology empowers them rather than technology for technology’s sake," Paul-Henri Ferrand, Dell’s CMO for consumer and small/medium business segments, told Adweek.
The new Dell ads show how consumers use their laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones. In one spot, for instance, "Sarah" is a young Dell Inspiron R user who explains how technology allows her to indulge her passion for Justin Bieber; another commercial has "Betty," a grandmother, talking about her Streak 5 Android tablet phone, which helps her stay in touch with her grandchildren. A key visual across the campaign is changing Dell’s logo to the name of the person featured in the ad.
Dell is using traditional media like broadcast and print, as well as digital and social media to target four main consumer targets: families with children; Generation Y young adults and teens; professionals; and gamers. That is in line with Dell’s more streamlined brand strategy, which is focused on three consumer brands—Inspiron, XPS, and Alienware—as opposed to as many as eight sub-brands in the past.
While 80 percent of Dell’s business is focused on enterprise users, 20 percent comes from the consumer segment, which is growing particularly well in emerging markets and is now a $13 billion business at Dell, which last year reported $52 billion in revenue. Dell is the No. 2 PC company, in terms of shipments, behind Hewlett-Packard.
In February, Dell awarded its consumer ad business to Montreal-based independent Sid Lee and its small/medium business assignment to Havas’ Arnold in Boston. In January, independent Barrie D’Rozario Murphy, Minneapolis, won the company’s advertising targeting public institutions like schools and governments. Those agencies work alongside WPP Group shops like Young & Rubicam, which inherited Dell business after the holding company’s dedicated agency known as Enfatico was devolved last year.
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