Buy.com Takes Understated Approach in New Campaign

E-tailer buy.com Tuesday launched a new advertising and marketing campaign with a simple approach it hopes will help it cut through the so-called “dot-com clutter.”

The campaign, code-named “colors” will feature solid black background with a small, white buy.com logo. No sound will be used on the TV ads, which the creators hope will make them stand out. The ads will run in various media, including television, newspaper, print, outdoor, and online banner spots.

The understated ads are meant to take the opposite approach from other dot-com advertisers – no loud music, no frenetic visuals. Buy.com executives hope the unusual approach will grab consumers’ attention.

“Last quarter it was obviously a scramble of too many messages, trying to stand out,” says Greg Hawkins, chief executive officer of buy.com. “We want to let people know we are sensitive to the overwhelming number of dot-com campaigns.”

Buy.com has an especially difficult challenge, because it sells so many things that consumers may fail to associate it with any one particular line of products. The company’s site offers computer hardware and peripherals, software, books, videos, DVDs, computer games, and music.

The company didn’t announce who had created the ad campaign for it, but in April buy.com said it had signed Black Rocket to handle its advertising.