tobidot (re)launch campaign
I’m one of those oddballs people who has had a personal website for ages. I could have taken the easy route to run a blog hosted on blogger or livejournal. Myspace hadn’t launched yet. I never could get a grasp on the BBS (Bulletin Board System). But… I did have tremendous html bona fides creating the first (and least interesting) website for the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Complete with inline gifs and a “live” webcam of the falls.
The choice was obvious. Register and launch the very first version of tobias.com. One problem… the domain was already registered by Tobias Insurance in Indiana. That’s when tobidot.com had its official naming ceremony. Through the years it was a place to house my advertising portfolio, photography, and occasional creative writing project.
Last year I rebooted the site with a new design and updated content to better showcase my marketing consultancy capabilities. (Note: to see my photographic and creative storytelling capabilities visit tobidot’s sister site, mamiku.ca). To promote my relaunch, I chose to ripoff pay homage to vintage computing ads from the 1980s, starting with a classic colour Macintosh double-page spread (money is no object at tobidot.com).
Launch ad for the rest of us
My relaunch ad, staying as close as possible to the fonts, tonality, word count, and layout of the original. Homepage image on the screen with a bit of transparency to show a hint of the original “hello.” The inline image of the random nerds borrowed from a random website.
Original Macintosh print ad.
Note the use of the phrase, “In the olden days…” in the leadoff spot with a group shot of “Some particularly bright engineers.” That’s some self-effacing copywriting I can get behind. These Apple folks might just be onto something here.
The second ad is a lot more
Adapted from the famous, infamous, ok I’ve never heard of it ad for the Penpad 320. I liberally applied the hyperbolic tonality from the original. How involved was typesetting back in the olden days? I had enough fun laying this out in photoshop.
Note the nifty tobidot pen logo, in the style of the Pencept logo.
Original Penpad ad
I bet the copywriter wanted to say “Or is it a whole lot more” but it wouldn’t fit.
The third ad is on the leading edge
No round and friendly apples or hyperbolic capability claims. We’re talking a full-on, testosterone-fuelled, IBM-hating smack-down. I did stray from the original black font. Found it too hard to read against the red.
I was listening to Black Sabbath’s Paranoid while working on this one. I’d like to think the original creative team would approve.
Leading Edge PC ad
Cobwebs? Check. Glowing disk drives? Check.
Extra-narrow column of hard to read copy with 103 hyphens? CHECK!
The fourth ad is… attention grabbing
So it’s not technically a computer ad. But those eyes! And flowers at your desk is something we should all aspire to. So many things to note in this one. Tobidex I was a disaster: uni-modal as hell. Mountebank and cockalorum are real words. Holiday Inn was known as Tobidot Inn until lawyers were called.
Holidex Ad
I want to be the one who developed the name Holidex. Brilliant.
Art Directors rejoice! Finally room for some green space.
A one-off ad concept and subsequent execution is (relatively) simple. Developing a second ad to follow-up the first gets more difficult. If you’re stuck at ad number three, chances are you do not have a campaignable concept.
As enjoyable as it can be to develop a campaign such as this one, you might be able to see the challenges in expanding it beyond a few ads. Finding source material to fit the original vision can be tough. The original ads needed to feature a computer screen and the scans (freely) available at a high-enough resolution to modify for the new versions. Writing copy to match the tonality of the originals while advertising the ‘benefits’ of the new tobidot.com takes time. Taking breaks to snicker at your own humour can ruin productivity.
I truly had fun making these ads - though their effectiveness isn’t even debatable - it’s non-existent.
