Tags : BillGates, JerrySeinfeld, microsoft, windows
Microsoft says Seinfield, Gates ad a winner
Microsoft has responded to criticism of its Jerry Seinfield Bill Gates advertising campaign by saying that the ad is a winner, telling the Wall Street Journal “It’s exactly what we were trying to achieve, which was to drive buzz.”
Other experts are supporting the campaign:
“The initial reaction might be on the fence or leaning negative but the ad did its job,” says Dean Crutchfield, a brand consultant. “Most companies would have to spend a billion dollars on advertising to get this kind of attention.”
“The fact that they have the blogs, the business community and mass media talking about it means they hit a nerve,” says Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a corporate branding firm owned by WPP Group.
Now if this wasn’t a Microsoft commercial I’d agree with all those points: people are talking about the ad, it has created buzz, and the idea that there is no such thing as bad publicity holds true. But we’re not talking about another company, we’re talking about Microsoft. A multi-billion dollar organization with 80-90% marketshare on computers, the default standard in office software, and a range of other things. You can’t go anywhere on the planet without running into something from Microsoft, and very few have never heard of the company, going to zero percent in the developed world.
This isn’t a company that needs buzz, that needs people talking about a zany ad that says nothing. Microsoft has brand awareness. What Microsoft needs to do is change people’s perception of the brand, to make people think positively about the company, and this ad fails to deliver.
Where was the key message? where was any message for that matter? Do people think more positively about Microsoft after the ad because Jerry Seinfield and Bill Gates like cheap shoes?
It is, as I’ve said previously, too clever by half. The fact that the Journal’s experts think that the ad is a huge hit proves the point, because there are times where the ad world has lost touch with reality. This ad resonates for all the wrong reasons, and the buzz doesn’t address the key messages Microsoft needs to deliver.
Will it yet deliver in follow up spots? Microsoft is betting that it is, and until we see the ads, we have no way of knowing. On the bright side, the campaign can only improve, but perhaps that’s the point I’m missing: perhaps it is suppose to start bad so that we see a transformation of Microsoft from the cheap shoes of Windows to something cooler and more desirable. We will see.
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On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 11 people and commented on 16 times hide-
Dear Microsoft: Please stop smoking crack.
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+1 Sean
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They're right... it sparked quite the conversation from all the podcasts + articles that I've come across.. remember, atm it's not about vista... this is only the beginning to try and repair their image as "irrelevant" as that ad was.
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I saw this ad for the first time today. Still scratching my head. Who exactly is this supposed to appeal to? Is this the new "Vista is great" push? Or a promo for cheap rich guys with bad style?
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If nothing else, it has people looking for the next ad, so... success, imo.
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Have you seen this post by Chris Baskind? - http://chrisbaskind.com/2008/09/05/why-the-new-microsoft-ad-is-actually-brilliant/
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All it proves is their ads suck too!
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I still don't know why I should switch to Vista. Anyone know why?
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the add as meant to put Sienfeld as the new face of Microsoft. That eyelock with Bill gates established that. It was also meant to get people talking. Which it did. And is thus a success. I for one am going to be making size 10 Conquistadors jokes for a long time.
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+1 Sean!! What's amazing is that some people do like this ad !
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Its perfect. Seinfeld is a comedian, and Vista is a joke...
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Actually the technical merits of Vista are moot. MS lost control of the spin, badly. They're working to bottle the old wine (same or similar API's) in a new Windows 7 bottle and throw Vista under the bus ASAP.
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Vista has it's bad points, such as UAC and steep hardware specs. But over the past year of updates and SP1, it's become rock solid. It is not a joke. Just take a look at the Engineering Seven post I shared earlier.
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The big problem I have with Vista is performance. I have a relatively slow laptop, and had to switch back to XP because Vista was unusably slow.
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Alexander: Understandable. One of my laptops still runs XP SP3 becuase its so slow. I would't let Vista near it. But in current hardware with current drivers, Vista runs pretty smoothly.
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I agree. But the thing that tipped the balance for me was that an unauthorised, unsupported copy of Leopard was more responsive on my laptop than Vista. So the next laptop I buy will be a Mac. Would use Ubuntu, but no iTunes and no Traktor makes it less than convenient.
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