Earlier this month, Toronto-based Lotus Development Canada launched an aggressive marketing campaign for its latest spreadsheet upgrade, 1-2-3 Release 4 for Windows.
Lotus, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lotus Development of Cambridge, Mass., has about 23% of the Canadian market for spreadsheet programs designed to run in Microsoft Windows.
(It also has 88% of the market for spreadsheet programs run directly on dos.)
With the introduction of 1-2-3 Release 4, the company hopes to double its share of the market for spreadsheets designed to run in the Windows environment.
A Microsoft program, Excel for Windows, which has about 60% of the market, is 1-2-3 Release 4’s primary competitor for Windows-oriented spreadsheets.
It is estimated Canadians will spend $60 million on spreadsheet sales in 1993.
Lotus says its 1993 marketing budget will be triple that of last year. The majority of the budget will be used to back the launch of the 1-2-3 upgrade.
The campaign, ‘Oh, What a Release It Is!,’ includes demonstration days at retailers, direct mail and advertising through print, outdoor and radio. (The radio spots are running only in Toronto.)
In addition, there is a reseller sales incentive and education program and a demonstration disk give-away conducted via The Starphone, an interactive telephone service offered by The Toronto Star.
The new release also introduces a new package design.
The ad campaign was created by Toronto’s Kelly Advertising. Copy was by Paul Breithaupt, vice-president of creative. Art direction was by art director Tony Weir.
