I have a feeling that there’s something new about Microsoft, but I may be wrong. Here’s what I’m talking about.
To celebrate the arrival of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft has produced a pretty nice and cute ad that tells the story of the internet. It’s sweet, and it treats the web with a sense of humanity.
Now, someone could say that it’s the same old story we experienced with Vista already: MS pours money into advertising to fool consumers about a poor product, instead of fixing it.
However, there are two things I like about the ad for IE 8.
Firstly, it’s sweet. Tender. It shows genuine affection for the web, something users all over the world are reluctant to give Microsoft credit for, given how disappointing its web properties, and namely IE, have been so far. And it shows this kind of affection in a human way, celebrating the flaws of the web alongside its virtues, and loving them both.
Secondly, if you visit the Internet Explorer 8 channel on Youtube, you find more good stuff like this: ok, it’s been online for six months already and so far only reached less than 600 views; ok, I don’t quite get the point of what it’s trying to say; but it has a nice tone of voice. And that’s quite something, considering how poorly Microsoft has historically performed in terms of brand personality.
I’m left wondering if CrispinPorter is somehow behind this…
Final Burp: if Microsoft keeps going down this route, they will soon and for the first time become the non-arrogant side of the big PC vs Mac divide. And who knows what will follow…
As I work in advertising myself, this piece of news shouldn’t suprise me: just like all creative work, the latest Microsoft ads by Crispin, Porter+Bogusky have been created on Macs.
It’s quite shallow and biased, but it’s still an interesting reading.
By the way, I don’t blame C,P+B for working on their usual machines, just like everyone in the industry does, but maybe Microsoft could have paid just a little more attention…
Final Burp: An ad is a product. Especially when it’s produced with products from the same category it’s promoting.
So apparently the teasing is over, and here is the real PC campaign:
First, spare thoughts:
It’s Crispin, Porter+Bogusky, but not enough. Unfortunately.
It’s Microsoft, but not too much. Thanks God.
There’s no revolutionary thought behind this: just a brand that makes the world go round showing some newly found pride.
Maybe that’s enough of a revolution. It invites PC users not to be ashamed of themselves, and that’s the first step for Microsoft to regain status.
Of course, it can’t fix Vista. If it sucks, it sucks.
We’ll see where it leads. It’s a thin balance between cool pride and boring boasting, as you can tell if you compare the 60″ cut with the (less intriguing) 30″.
Oh, as of today, evening of the day after the campaign launched, GMT+1, the 60″ cut by DuncansTV (the WindowsVideos channel doesn’t feature it yet) has less than 5.000 views on youtube.
The 30″ cut less than 20.000.
Too little.
Final Burp: a comment from a colleague here at Dare. “This is an ad for Windows, which you can install in a PC or in a MAC (Which is a PC with MacOS preinstalled)”
This is the second episode of a series of Microsoft ads developed by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. It’s part of a $300M campaign aimed, I think, at connecting Microsoft with consumers, and, as expected, it’s raising a debate in Ad-World
(The debate in the tech-world is generally limited to: Vista sucks! With the option of: Get a Mac!)
You can read AdAge’s cover of the ad here, and if you browse through blogs you can see quite a few people blaming the ad for only casually quoting Windows at the very end of the commercial, but I really don’t think that’s the point: every single shot of Bill Gates, on any commercial, magazine cover or newspaper article, says “Windows” all over the world, so, in ad terms, these long commercials offer plenty of products.
As for me, I really don’t get these ads, and again they seem like a wasted opportunity (as in the case of HSBC), but I have so much faith in Crispin, Porter+Bogusky that I think that, despite every evidence to the contrary, something is up, and this campaign will eventually takes off.
Who knows, maybe they’re seeding lame ads to lower expectations, until the big climax… After all, it’s the same agency that revived Burger King and Volkswagen USA.
Final Burp: With bad news such as Intel’s refusal to upgrade to Vista, Microsoft is in great need of an image makeover, but if CP+B can’t make it, I doubt anyone can.
