The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is launching a $300 million ad campaign starting September 4th. The ads will star none other than Jerry Seinfeld, who’s reported to be receiving about $10 million. Not bad, eh?
The campaign is being developed to combat the negative image that many consumers have about Windows Vista and also to finally push back against Apple’s popular Mac vs. PC campaign.
So who will star opposite of Seinfeld in the Microsoft commercials? Bill Gates himself! While that could be seen as a bold and potentially dangerous move, the ad campaign will be the brainchild of agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the company behind Burger King ads (The King), Coke Zero (Coke wants to sue Coke Zero for taste infringement), and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
The campaign will play off the slogan “Windows, Not Walls” and push the idea of “breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting.” That doesn’t sound all that funny, but here’s to hoping from some hilarity on September 4th.
The Vista is the nightclub of operating systems.
Being a Seinfeld fan of sorts, this could be good for Microsoft. Other than the fact that the Burger King and Coke Zero ads are the singularly most stupid, inane ads to come out in years.
“Yeah, I use Windows, not that there’s anything wrong with that…”
“No open standards for you!”
Wow, let’s battle awkward OS issues with an awkward comedian and an awkward geek. This should be… um… not funny.
Transcript of rejected commercial found here:
http://lairigmarketing.typepad.com
I wrote the following to a professor at Boston U. whose course on Brands I began auditing yesterday: I found the New Coke (retrospective) case study very exciting and that was playing on my mind when you mentioned the new MS Vista ad campaign aimed to counter Apple’s growing bite. Might there be some way for the class to begin a prospective/predictive look at this campaign? (Think of how much fun that would have been had it been done at the inception of New Coke!) As I thought about our class and this beginning saga, you made a very good point about how difficult Coke’s marketing situation was, and it came to me that some of the very same issues are elemental with MS vs. Apple as had been with Coke vs. Pepsi. To wit: Coke as MS has an inferior product (less sweet by the consumer taste test standard) and Apple as Pepsi, has a superior operating system.
Jumping way ahead of the end of this year, I predict an initial reduction in MS’s market loss (as they gather their loyalists) followed by a dramatic increase in their losses as an unintended consequence of the public being directed to pay attention to a problem area they couldn’t have otherwise cared to know about. The fatal flaw in MS’s marketing plan is that they are inadvertently going to bring more critical attention upon the factual differences between Vista and OSX, the former crashes w/o notice, gets viruses and spyware and the latter doesn’t. Unlike subjective taste, objective standards of performance are quite easy to compile and evaluate and in fact are already plastered across the newspapers (e.g. David Pogue, NYTimes, the tech guy from the Washington Post whose name I forget), magazines and blogosphere, only these killing results have been limited by the general populations disinterest or ignorance of receiving them. I know this stuff and that’s why I am an Apple convert/exhort and not representative of the larger market. Should MS better follow a strategy of sweeping it under the rug and buy time to fix their product or name call and denounce their opponent? Sound like the Republicans vs. the Democrats?
Another way to look at MS’s problem is in terms of damage control, if GM built a car that was determined or demonstrated to be unsafe at any speed (sorry for the pun but it crashes), could they continue to profitably sell this product if they adjusted their advertising/marketing strategy WITHOUT correcting the product? While my father’s red convertible Corvair never crashed, if GM continued to sell this car, would he have bought another after he read Ralph Nader?
Thanks Dr.Michael I have got good helpful point and even good example, (e.g. David Pogue, NYTimes, the tech guy from the Washington Post whose name I forget)… nice to get with Apple convert/exhort and not representative of the larger market….!
Doug, you have even Windows Vista and also to finally push back against Apple’s popular Mac vs. PC campaign. So I get good difference between them.
I find late approving of comment …! I mean moderation Que wait me long..
Any way. Thanks Dr.Michael I have got good helpful point and even good example, (e.g. David Pogue, NYTimes, the tech guy from the Washington Post whose name I forget)… nice to get with Apple convert/exhort and not representative of the larger market….!
Doug, you have even Windows Vista and also to finally push back against Apple’s popular Mac vs. PC campaign. So I get good difference between them.