• by Aaron Baar , August 4, 2010

Computers -- particularly laptops -- aren't known for their sound, particularly because of the way music is compressed to play on them. Yet the computer remains the top storage and playback device for most people's music collections.

To address this discrepancy, particularly among Millennials, HP has aligned with several music artists, including Dr. Dre, Timbaland, OneRepublic, Weezer, Train, B.o.B and Maroon 5 to tout the music processor installed in some models. The company's Summer Music Campaign includes television advertising, Web video and promotions.

"It all ties back into our strategy of 'Touch See Hear'," Fred Bullock, vice president of marketing for HP's Personal Systems Group in the Americas, tells Marketing Daily. "It's about making technology more personal and more useful. The 'Hear' part is to improve the sound on a PC."

In a television commercial, a masked technician is installing components into computers, which are playing music that sounds tinny and thin. After installing Beats Audio music processors, the sound gets deeper and richer. At the end of the spot, the technician is revealed to be Dr. Dre.

In addition to the commercial, which has been running on national cable networks such as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, BET and others, HP's Summer Music Campaign has also hosted live studio sessions with various music artists that were aired live on the NASDAQ and Reuters billboards in Times Square and streamed live on Facebook. HP's Facebook page will also host a music trivia quiz that will entertain and educate consumers about sound quality.

Later this summer, HP will also partner with Xbox Live to create an online experience where users can watch HD video of the music sessions and other video from the campaign, as well as chances to win an HP Envy computer with Beats, games and other prizes.

The entire campaign is targeted at Generation Y members, who value music and sound quality, Bullock says. "There are specific groups of people that spend a lot of time multitasking, using PCs and doing other things," Bullock says.

"Millennials are one of those groups. To them, music is important. They spend about three hours a day listening to music on their PC. They'd like to have improvement in their sounds, just like we've improved the video."

The San Francisco office of McCann Erickson developed the Summer Music Campaign, while Omnicom Media Group handled media planning and buying. Digital Broadcasting Group produced the Live Concert Series events.