Marketing Failure: Microsoft Pays NFL To Use Its Surface Tablets — And People Still Call Them 'iPad-Like Tools'
from the didn't-get-the-memo dept
Over at The Verge, Vlad Savov has an amusing post about how NFL announcers this weekend referred to the sideline tablets that players are using as “iPad-like tools.” Microsoft Surface tablets are being allowed on the sidelines as part of a $400 million deal between Microsoft and the NFL. And Microsoft is promoting the Surface as “the official tablet of the NFL.” And, in the end, all anyone remembers is that it’s an “iPad-like tool.” I wonder if the guy who signed that deal for Microsoft has lined up a new job yet…
Filed Under: football, ipad, marketing, surface, tablets
Companies: microsoft, nfl
Comments on “Marketing Failure: Microsoft Pays NFL To Use Its Surface Tablets — And People Still Call Them 'iPad-Like Tools'”
Or as those outside of North America would call it, “an iPad-like tool for a football-like sport.”
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Is it really like football though, I think they should call it hand ball…lol.
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I always liked the term ‘hand-egg’, seems to describe the sport fairly well. You’ve got an egg shaped ‘ball’, and most of the time it’s carried in someone’s hand, hence ‘hand-egg’.
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It’s like Rugby with padding and commercial breaks.
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I only watch for the commercials, if I wanted to see a bunch of tough guys pound on each other, toss around balls and pile up I get on the internet and watch gay porn.
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I’ve called it pu…-errr baby Rugby for years, even in front of players. Funny thing is, the players admit it, the fans are the ones that get upset by it.
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Look up the history of “football”. It meant a game played on foot with a ball, as opposed to something played on horseback. The use of hands or not doesn’t matter.
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A football-like (but less boring and where scoring is legal) sport.
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This is almost too easy!
The gadget is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike an iPad!
The sport is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike football!
I tell you, Adams was a genius!
I bet he gets a 2 game suspension.
Today's lesson in marketing
When you bribe someone to show off your product to the public, always make sure you bribe everyone facing the public.
Isn't Apple gGoing to Sue to Protect its Trademark?
What we have here is someone using “iPad” as a generic term for any tablet-like device. Apple’s trademark is being diluted. They should sue Microsoft, the NFL, and the offending TV network to protect their trademark.
Thus following the most famous makers of facial tissues, hardboard and expanded polystyrene foam in making a big fuss about their trademark, ensuring sure that consumers know that there are other options when trying to purchase said products.
Re: Isn't Apple gGoing to Sue to Protect its Trademark?
What we have here is someone using “iPad” as a generic term for any tablet-like device.
No, they’re comparing another product to an iPad. If they said “they’re using ipads” or “they have Microsoft ipads” while knowing that the devices are not Apple iPads, that would be using it as a generic term. What they said is “iPad-like tools”.
The announcer is John Lynch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lynch_(American_football)
Microsoft paid the NFL a lot of money, but the Verge claims that the networks themselves aren’t being paid by Microsoft. That isn’t true. Microsoft has been buying heavy advertising on NFL games for the last few years. Looks like Fox didn’t bother to clue their announcers in on what the sponsors were paying for.
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Microsoft paid the NFL a lot of money, but the Verge claims that the networks themselves aren’t being paid by Microsoft. That isn’t true. Microsoft has been buying heavy advertising on NFL games for the last few years.
They’re not being paid to have their announcers promote the Surface. Buying ads doesn’t automatically buy you the announcers.
Oh Oh!!!
Is ipad becoming a generic term for a tablet pc, if so I am sure apple is not going to be very happy about that as the ipad name is something they cherish very much, even now my kids call their cheap table an ipad when they are mentioning it to anyone, not becasue they want people to think they have an ipad they are way too young for that.
This is my life with a Surface!
I’m stuck with a Surface RT (don’t laugh: needed a tablet, wanted something with intelligence, Surface 1 Pro wasn’t out yet…). This is basically what continually happens to me. Every Single Time someone sees it for the first time, they call it an iPad. *sigh* (Disclaimer: I’m not an Apple fan.)
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I think the iPad is overrated nowadays. I’ve seen computers that turn into tablets running windows and they are far more useful than the iPad. The RT thing was an idiocy, they should have gone Windows 8 from the start.
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The iPad market matured amazingly quickly. I still see people happily using iPad 2’s with no urge to upgrade. Personally when I gave my iPad back to my employer after quitting my job, I saw no reason to buy another.
The phone upgrade cycle is faster, but that is slowing down too now as there are less and less benefits to upgrading to the latest and greatest.
ITS like 10 years ago some adults would call every console, nintendo,
eg do you play on the nintendo,
even it was a sega or a dreamcast console,
as nintendo was the most famous console maker.
everyone knows what a ipad is.
Who, in the entire universe, would prefer to say “iPad-like tool” rather than “tablet”? I call BS.
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Who, in the entire universe, would prefer to say “iPad-like tool” rather than “tablet”?
A football player.
iPad loses its Trademark status
I see this as Apple losing any trademark for iPad (yeah!), much like Kleenex and Xerox are now common words in our vernacular which no longer refer to their specific companies but to the generic idea.
Re: iPad loses its Trademark status
Don’t count on it. It can even go in the opposite direction.
For example I picked up a US Robotics Pilot when they first came out. This was my third hand-held computer. The class of computers were already known as “palm-tops” by this point.
Put the Pilot had a stylus, and that was enough for the makers of Pilot pens to sue them. So the Pilot was renamed the “Palm Pilot”, and then the “Palm.” And the company started suing anyone who called their palm-tops “palm-tops.” And they took ownership of the word “palm.”
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Do they own Palm Beach County too?
Wonder if MS contracted with ESPN/ABC/other broadcasters?
Probably what happened is MS contracted with the NFL but didn’t get the broadcasters on board. So as long as the NFL refers to it properly, no breach of contract but maybe they can’t do anything to the announcers.