IBM’s Eight Page "Ad-Mission"

An “Ad-Mission” is an advertisement with a mission.

When I opened the lead section of today’s Wall Street Journal, I could hardly believe my eyes. Tucked inside was an eight page IBM advertisement welcoming the Cognitive Era – a new era of technology, a new era of business, a new era of thinking.

This ad-mission extends and celebrates IBM’s basic slogan – Think. What the ad is saying is that you can’t think without computers, and with computers you outthink your competitors.

Page 1 is saying: It’s elementary, my Dear Watson. Watson is IBM’s thinking computer. Watson is the name of IBM’s founder. Watson is the sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson. If you’re an ad man, it all fits.

Page 2 proclaims that 3 historic shifts have created businesses that can only think with the aid of Cognitive Computers. The shifts are 1: A World Awash in Data. 2: A World Reinvented in Code. 3 The Advent of Cognitive Computing. “Cognitive” is the new word for “Thinking.” And in business, you need to have Cognitive Engagement, Cognitive Products and Services, and Cognitive Processes and Operations, Cognitive Expertise, and Cognitive Exploration and Discovery.

Page 3- Advances the proposition that IBM Watson understand reasons and learns, and in a sense, think. Watson has 28 cloud-based applications , everything from soup to nuts.

Page 4 - Watson can analyze meaning and context of data in clinical notes and reports, combine data from patient’s files with clinical expertise and research,, and identify best treatment plans.

Page 5 - Watson can identify “hot” products and combine predictive with demographic data to reduce out-of-stock situations,

Page 6- Watson can outthink sports executives on who to draft and who to trans, can outthink energy experts on what alternative energies to use, can outthink those who file fraudulent insurance claims, and can outthink educators by helping tem spot students at risk of dropping out.

Page 7 - Watson can help executive by identifying risky and profitable merger and acquisition deals.

Page 8 - Watson can make businesses ready to design cognitive strategies, make analytics more useful. Help businesses move to the cloud, build a cognitive infrastructure , and make data more secure.

The mission described in all of these patients is designed to help businesses outthink and outperform ordinary human and to make businesses extraordinarily successful.

IBM’s cognitive outthinking human campaign should be considered in the context of IBM’s weak stock market performance with 13 straight quarters of decline in quarterly revenues and sharp drops in market caps as IBM invests heavily in cloud computing and data analytic technology to boost its declining personal computer business.

IBM’s future is in the cloud, but it depends on numbers on the ground