Microsoft Joins Vampires
Ok, I’ve been gone for a while due to a very busy schedule of independent marketing projects, but I am now back.
OMG, How appropriate that Microsoft uses Vampire Diaries to launch the next Windows OS that will suck. I would have loved to be in the brainstorming session that turned out this latest ad to promote Windows 7. Microsoft is in need of a massive dose of credibility and this doesn’t do it for me. I would expect something like this from a High School Marketing class, not a marketing department or professional and experienced ad agency. Using a cute little girl, bunnies and cats will not change the fact that the issues with MS are solely due to the product that Microsoft puts out and its long reputation of instability. Crashes, bugs, viruses and constant patches and updates (some of which make things worse) are the challenges that Microsoft faces. Before addressing these issues, the marketing folks are wasting their budgets and are forced to acts of desperation, because the product can’t compete on features and benefits. The campaign of paying consumers to buy a PC was bad and desperate. The ads from Apple work because they are based on experiences that many of us have had with our PC’s, which also serve as the reasons many of us have switched to Apple, including me. Take a lesson from Seth Godin and The Purple Cow – Make a remarkable product first.
Good Luck.
I like the ad. And it makes sense. Microsoft is targeting people, in this case infants, who have not experienced their products before, and so may be more likely to try one. I think there are still some tribal folk in the Amazon rainforest who might qualify for the next commercial.
You’re an Anti-Microsoft hack, who has probably never experienced Windows 7. I am totally enjoying Windows 7 on my home PC.
My thoughts on the Windows 7 ad is that it’s a cute ad, which parents and kids will love, and Apple and Google Chrome really have their work cut out for them. Windows 7 is really that good.
It’s clever, and at the same time plays it very safe.
Previous ads have been aimed at characterizing Apple products and/or users as “elitist” etc.; which seems to break a cardinal rule about ‘not speaking ill of your competitor’.
It also risked alienating Apple users, who are in reality also Microsoft’s customers for OS and applications. The real world is not partitioned into Windows and Mac camps… there is interoperability, and on Apple hardware, dual booting… Boot Camp, VMWare, Parallels…
The new ad is positive and playful, and lets Windows 7 stand on its own merit. It suggests that Microsoft is more confident that Windows 7 stands up to comparison with Mac OS.
You do realize the constant bugs and fixes are so the system stays up to date. Linux distros do it too. If apple had a bigger user base they would have to do it as often as MS as well because more malicious software would target Mac OS. You’ve obviously not experienced anything outside your little bubble.
We all see advertising from our own point of view. So it’s interesting to read the other comments on this ad. It is clearly for the consumer market. But as a business (that avoided Vista) I think the ad is really scary. Since I can’t understand what the little girl is saying, I got no assurances at all that this new OS will have any value for me. Even if I could understand what she said, I don’t make purchase decisions based on a two year-old.