SanDisk launches ‘iDon’t’ anti-iPod campaign

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SanDisk launches ‘iDon’t’ anti-iPod campaign

SanDisk, the No. 2 seller of digital music players in the U.S., has drastically stepped up its efforts to take on the iPod with a new Guerrilla marketing campaign. The company’s “iDon’t” campaign, launched over the weekend, consists mainly of an anti-iPod website, but also includes paid foot soldiers at university campuses. The “iDon’t” website’s main purpose is to promote SanDisk’s Sansa e200 music player by communicating to consumers that owning an iPod is unoriginal and that iPod users are followers.

“Calling all free thinkers, contrarians, and malcontents. The time has come to rise up against the iTatorship,” the site’s manifesto reads. “To resist the monotony of white earbuds and reject the oppressive forces of cultural conformity. Now is the time to break free from restrictive formats and a single source for music. Its time for choice, for freedom, for self expression—and for independent spirits to stand up and say ‘iDon’t’. You don’t need to follow. There is now an alternative.”

The “iDon’t” website proudly links to anti-iPod websites like Cyber Rodent, Anything But iPod, and iPod’s Dirty Secret. SanDisk is also selling T-shirts and offering free downloadable posters and desktop pictures featuring artwork such as iSheep, iChimp, iFollow, iHerd, iSchackle, iDroid, and iPuppet.

The SanDisk campaign is being handled by Grey Direct, which calls itself “a world-leading direct marketing agency with a focus on maximizing return on investment.” A news entry on the site by “Eric (a.k.a. Da Sheep Herder)” reads: “This site and the iDon’t campaign are the creation of several of us renegades behind the new Sansa player, from SanDisk. And this is our playful way of saying “Enough! Yeah, we’re just fed up with the ever-expanding flock of iSheep swarming through our cities. You’ve seen them. They’re everywhere. Every bus, train and city sidewalk is a mass of white headphones. Blindly they’ve bought into the hype without ever realizing there are other mp3 players out there.”

iLounge has received at least one report of an “iDon’t” representative approaching college students on campus offering free T-shirts. An iLounger reports that he was handed a black tee featuring an illustration of a chimp wearing Apple’s popular white earbuds (shown below). “So today, when I came out of my Monday morning lecture at university, putting my earphones on I notice this girl coming up to with a T-shirt,” he says. “At first I thought she was one of those annoying survey people, but I noticed there was more of them and then when I pulled my ear phone off she said ‘It’s iDont.com!’ staring at the T-Shirt realizing that there is an ape with white earphones. She gave it to me because I have black earphones.”

SanDisk’s director of consumer product marketing, Eric Bone, said in February that the company wants to be “a strong No. 2 in the MP3 space,” adding that “there are people who, no matter what, will buy an iPod. All I want is for people to think there is an alternative.” SanDisk, which began selling digital music players in November 2004, used its weight in the flash memory industry and strong presence at American retailers to sell one million players during this past year’s holiday quarter, putting it in a distant second place to Apple.

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Comments

101

I think Apple should find a way to get the rights for using the ape image for an iPod Ad….iMreally evolved, or iVolution ))

Posted by smiduri on May 25, 2006 at 3:47 AM (PDT)

102

haha i love the comment below about how hes gonna attend sandisks funeral, god apple users are so ignorent. You know this mp3 player actually destroys the nano. The nano is the biggest rip off piece of garbage apple has ever released. I own a mac, and an ipod, but have used the sansa as well and it is a great mp3 player. Plus it includes video and picture capablitities which the ipod “no no’ as i like to call it does, Yes apple makes great products, but they are extremely overpriced, and often not worth the boat-load of extra money unless you are trying to design things. Seriously if your gonna use an ipod go ahead, but dont just go out and buy one check out sandisks alternative aswell, be open minded and not some closed minded APPLE tool.

Posted by Dan on May 25, 2006 at 11:01 AM (PDT)

103

Shorter SanDisk ad campaign:

DON’T BE A SHEEP FOR APPLE
BE A SHEEP FOR US INSTEAD

Competition for the iPod? Great. Alternative to Apple’s DRM? Wonderful. Astroturfing? Screw ‘em in the ear. Something that the SanDisk apologists seem to be ignoring consistently is that Apple always identifies themselves as the producers of their ads, whether against Microsoft, Intel, or whatever. The iDon’t people hide the identity of their puppetmasters under the last link on their page.

Oh, and iDon’t iDiots? Here comes the cluetrain, comin’ ‘round the bend: Monkeys are cool. I’ll make sure to wear my white headphones with your black T-shirt, even though I prefer the black phones, because they’ll show up better. Try taking some of the cash you’re throwing at these bogus “guerilla marketers” and spend it on R&D to make your crappy SD cards better.

Posted by Tom on May 26, 2006 at 2:45 PM (PDT)

104

Sandisk is not after iPod 30/60gb.

Sansa e160 [4GB - expandable]: $195
iPod Nano [4GB]: $230

Posted by tH on May 27, 2006 at 11:56 PM (PDT)

105

Oh and to the guy who compared his Ipod 30GB or 60GB whatever to his wife’s Sansa e130.
Geez c’mon.
Sansa e130 is a $50 512mb mp3 player.
How the hell can you make that kind of comparison? You gotta be really stupid of influenced.

Posted by tH on May 29, 2006 at 12:55 AM (PDT)

106

Zach-
A few points on your last post. First off, the Sansa E270 can be had for about $240, shipping and tax included, from most of the major web retailers. Secondly, your not locked into 6GB, there is a micro SD card slot that let’s you carry an ever-expandable library of songs (all you need to do is carry a few of those cards taped to the back of the player…..we Nano holders are TRULY locked into the measly 4GB of memory in our Nano)! Third, we paid nearly the same amount for our Nano player, so 240 for 6 GB plus is NOT ridiculous. Fourth, don’t even get me started on the Nano’s non-self-replaceable battery….........

Posted by keithnyc on May 31, 2006 at 9:55 AM (PDT)

107

The thing here is that the sansa isnt an iPod alternative. It doesnt support video like iPod from what I can make out. It is only 6 GB with a slot for a memory card, but that still wont be able to match the 30 GB of the standard iPod. It is only going to compete in functionality with the nano, which it should fail. It isnt as well thought out. It is bigger. It’s probably even heavier.

Posted by anon85 on June 5, 2006 at 9:06 AM (PDT)

108

I good ipod is a dead ipod. Apple sucks, just like microsoft.

Posted by Elven on June 14, 2006 at 2:51 AM (PDT)

109

i have an ipod nano 4gb and i like it, its a great music device. i also have a creative zen nano plus for school. i dont feel like getting my ipod ripped off just yet lol.

anyway, i like the nano for just a few features that the zen doesn’t have. for one, 4gbs of music storage, color display with album art, ease of use, and its tiny.

the zen nano is small too, but its only 512mb, so right off the bat its a big difference. the few reasons i like it are, it has better sound than the ipod for some unknown reason, its got a radio, line-in encoding, voice memo, recording from the radio and it came with a belt clip lol.

anyway, thats my opinion. i will always go for the ipod though, just because of the cool factor involved.

Posted by brian on July 12, 2006 at 6:24 AM (PDT)

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