Hypocritical Apple
One of Apples recent PC ads (see at bottom of post) made fun of the amount of money that Microsoft spends on Vista advertising. But think about it, how often do you see a Vista commercial vs. a Apple commercial. I think the answer is pretty obvious.
But according to Netcrunch, here are the real numbers.
It turns out that I underestimated Apple’s advertising budget. Lindsay Blakely at Bnet (a former Business 2.0 reporter) found the actual numbers in a subsequent SEC filing. In its 2008 fiscal year that just ended last September, Apple spent a whopping $486 million on advertising. (In fiscal year 2007, it spent $467 million, and in fiscal year 2006 it spent $338 million).
Half a billion dollars on marketing. No wonder I think Apple products are so great.
Update: Microsoft spends more on advertising across all of its combined businesses than Apple does, but its Windows business is what competes most directly with Apple. Microsoft’s total advertising budget across all of its businesses, including Windows, Office, Xbox, and all the enterprise stuff, was the following (from the 10K): “Advertising expense was $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.2 billion in fiscal years 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively.”
Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June, so these numbers do not reflect the $300 million Vista campaign. But that would have eaten up 25 percent of Microsoft’s entire ad budget for any of the previous three years.
Apple Mac Advert – Bean Counter