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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (12332)	5/7/1999 3:35:00 PM
From: John Finley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

The numbers that you give are convincing, re: ad campaign. One can only assume that TDFX was after something else. Maybe they were planning on getting the brand name on everyone's lips during this critical time in the OEM decision process. Let's hope it works <g>. JF

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (12332)	5/7/1999 3:41:00 PM
From: Peter S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Jeez, Pat. What a -ve PoV. Let's put some +ve spin on that. First, if the calculation was that simple I'd expect/hope that the $20m wouldn't have been spent. 2nd, the market is expanding. 50% US homes have yet to buy their 1st PC. Only a fraction (who knows this figure) of existing PCs have a 3dfx product inside the box, so the upgrade market is expanding too. 3rd, OEMs are influenced by the ads too. Even if it because the voodoo brand awareness has been increased. This could be evidenced by market research 3dfx brings to the OEM negotiations. The generic nature of the ads complement the new 'uncluttered' box design. 3dfx are really pushing the brand and I am hoping that Dell, GW et al will see the value in that because that's just what they do. Just my happy-go-lucky opinion. I do agree that the E3/V4 hype is not very healthy. It seems too perfect so in that respect it doesn't appear to reflect real-life. Not my life, anyway . It would be nice though. My advice is to 3dfx is to have a dozen boxes printed up with Voodoo4 on them and put them in their booth until the doors open at which time they hurriedly take them away. Talk about a great hype generator. Peter S

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (12332)	5/7/1999 4:28:00 PM
From: Joe C.	Respond to of 16960

Quantifying the impact of TV advertising (or any advertising for that matter) is a difficult thing. When viewed purely in terms of their past or current earnings, the numbers seem staggering. No one said that they weren't being aggressive. The flip side is how these numbers compare when viewed in terms of future earnings. IF TDFX can generate 600 million in revenues (at say 100 a card), that's 6 million cards or about $3.33 per card. This amount is on the low side of what the fan is costing the TNT2 cards makers to sell their product. I believe the cost of the campaign probably includes the non-TV stuff they've been doing (promotion, print ads, banners, etc.) which is cheaper and is strengthened by being part of a package. I agree its' a lot of money and to be honest I also have strong doubts because I am skepticle of the whole medium. On the other hand, the ads are being sen by a lot of people and they are being noticed. I like that TDFX continues to go for the gold (buying STB, investing heavily in their brand). I'm in this to make big money so my target is 2-3 billion in sales for TDFX, using those numbers 20 million is chump change. Joe C.