A Flashy Departure For I.B.M.

The Media Business: Advertising

The New York Times

June 29, 1989

I.B.M. lifted the curtain yesterday on its second new advertising campaign, with television ads featuring flashy photography, special effects and a jingle that sounds like rap music.

The campaign was designed by Lintas: New York to promote I.B.M.'s Personal System/2 line of computers as a flexible tool for growing small to midsize businesses. While it echoes the theme of responsiveness to individual customers that I.B.M. established last April in a new marketing-image campaign, its similarity to that campaign ends there.

The marketing campaign, created by Wells, Rich, Greene, used spare images and simple graphics to make its point. The kinetic imagery and music of the latest campaign is a striking creative departure from both the Wells, Rich campaign and I.B.M.'s previous advertising, which used the gentle humor of a Charlie Chaplin impersonator and the ''M*A*S*H'' television ensemble to promote its personal computers and office systems.

''We want to tell customers we can help secure them a competitive edge,'' said James C. Reilly, general manager of I.B.M.'s U.S. Marketing and Services division. ''This advertising is fun and sophisticated.''

Neither Mr. Reilly nor Lintas would disclose the budget of the campaign, but one person said I.B.M. would spend ''about $15 million between now and the end of the year.''

Analysts said they were not surprised by the strategy of the new ad campaign, particularly its emphasis on growing businesses. ''I.B.M. has finally recognized that the bigger companies are their market,'' said Seymour Merrin, a computer industry analyst based in Palo Alto, Calif.

I.B.M. introduced the PS/2 product line in April 1987 to replace its Personal Computer line. Industry analysts say the PS/2 is the critical weapon in I.B.M.'s fight to maintain its market share in the estimated $20 billion personal computer market.

The new ads replace a campaign that featured the cast of ''M*A*S*H,'' which was phased out late last year. Those ads were the last created by Lord, Geller, Federico, Einstein, which lost the $130 million I.B.M. account in June 1988, after several of the agency's executives defected to form their own shop.

In September, I.B.M. split its business, awarding half to Wells, Rich and half to Lintas: New York. Wells, Rich handles I.B.M.'s corporate advertising in addition to its marketing-image ads, while Lintas handles the PS/2 product line. Lintas has already created ads for I.B.M., but this is its first completely new campaign.

The new campaign also includes print ads with cartoons similar in style to those in The New Yorker. Both the print and television ads use the tag line: ''How're you going to do it? PS/2 it!'' - which evokes a line from ''Ghostbusters II.''

Mr. Reilly said the line's similarity to ''Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!'' was a coincidence, but the strategy behind the campaign is not dissimilar to the problem-solving image projected by Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd in the film.

''We want to be known as the best solution-delivery vehicle in the industry,'' Mr. Reilly said. He said that research done by Lintas indicated that the PS/2's typical customer - the small to midsize business - wanted a desktop computer system that could adapt to changing technology and rapid growth.

The ads emphasize both the flexibility and advanced technology of the PS/2 product line. In one spot, this point is illustrated by a small commercial building that grows into a huge office tower with the help of a PS/2 computer network.

None of the ads use a narrator. Instead, they feature a lengthy jingle, which is half sung, half spoken, in a thumping rhythm similar to rap music. ''We call this 'heightened reality with a sense of humor,' '' said Frank DeVito, the president and director of creative services at Lintas, who said the agency wanted to create a ''friendlier, warmer, more upbeat voice for I.B.M.''

The first print ad will appear today in The Wall Street Journal, while the television ads will be broadcast this weekend during network coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament in England.

GRAPHIC: photo of scene from I.B.M. television commercial