According to a report from Re/code, Intel, Microsoft, HP, Dell, and Lenovo are all teaming together to form an ad campaign to make the general consumer more aware of what the modern PC is capable of. The campaign will be announced Thursday on a Webcast featuring all the companies’ marketing executives. “PC Does What?” is the campaign’s slogan, and it will feature a comprehensive suite of TV, print, and online advertising.
The move is designed to make consumers in the US and China more aware of how new PCs are far more capable than the outdated hardware most families have lying around in the household. How, specifically the campaign intends to do that is not yet clear.
It’s no secret that the PC market is shrinking. With PC shipments declining by 7.7 percent as we reported earlier, this may be a collective effort on part of all the major OEMs and the big technology makers Intel and Microsoft to try and stop the bleeding. Interestingly, this news comes just a day after we’ve reported that PC manufacturers may be a bit upset with Microsoft over its lauded launch of the Surface Book.
It makes perfect sense that Microsoft might be participating in this campaign partly as a way to assuage its OEM partners’ fears that the company may be stealing customers and media attention away from them as their competitor. It’s important to note that according to the report, Intel and Microsoft are the ones putting up most of the funds behind this campaign, though HP, Dell, and Lenovo have also chipped in some.
How much each company contributed to this campaign is still unclear. Considering that this campaign targets some pretty expensive television spots, it’s easy to infer that collectively, this campaign could be quite pricey. I hope for the sake of the PC industry that this campaign is effective.
