Microsoft Tries a New Ad Agency 372
Diomidis Spinellis writes "An article in this week's Economist outlines Microsoft's marketing response to Vista's travails and Apple's hip Get a Mac campaign. Describing the recent Mojave Experiment as 'Microsoft at its worst,' the article's writer wonders whether hiring a new hot ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, to put together a $300m campaign can make Microsoft look cool. Can money buy you love?"
Go Ahead, Make Fun... (Score:4, Informative)
...but it was these guys that made the "Un-pimp My Ride" commercials for Volkswagen... ...and because you wanna watch 'em, here's the first [youtube.com], second [youtube.com] and third [youtube.com] of those...
Re:apple on the downside (Score:5, Informative)
When my wife (a graphic designer) and I (a software engineer) first started seeing one another I convinced her to dump her Mac for Windows.
Windows 2000 was, truth be told, the best operating system for end users at that time. The Mac (pre OS X) was a piece of junk.
Fast forward today. We have 5 Mac's in the house. We have Linux on our servers. The sole remaining Windows machine has not been turned on for at least a few months.
Mac OS X has come a long way. It is everything a UNIX guy could evey have hoped for in a desktop/laptop OS (I started on Solaris).
The fact that it is shiny and cool is great bonus but that is not why I use it. I use it because it's better, it's easier, it's faster, and it's more robust then Vista.
Microsoft might claw it's way back. I hear Windows 2008 Server is a good product. But right now the Microsoft OS is the piece of junk, and Apple dominates in terms of product quality.
Re:apple on the downside (Score:3, Informative)
Wrong. http://www.microsoft.com/express/product/default.aspx [microsoft.com]
Money can't buy a culture change (Score:1, Informative)
I've worked on Microsoft advertising efforts several times over the years. I wish Crispin Porter + Bogusky the best of luck. They're a good shop, but they can't fix what they can't control. And the fact of the matter is, at least in my experience, that the folks at Microsoft just can't bring themselves to put the customer first.
They try. They say that this time, they're going to do it. But like drunks falling off the wagon, they do whatever they want anyway, and then ask their ad agencies to sell it as a customer benefit.
They once even hired a very capable guy, all the way from France, just to make sure that marketing messaging put the customer first. There was joy on Madison Avenue and glasses raised in Redmond. (I definitely remember a bar; they may also have been a disco.) But alas, as soon as the Frenchman tried to do what he was hired to do -- get product managers and internal marketing folks to put the customer first -- he lost first his support,then his budget, and finally his job. I think the whole debacle was over in about six months.
The incontrovertible fact of advertising - true since before ads were painted on walls in Pompeii - is that cool will get you in the door, but only a great customer experience will create advocates. And cool will do nothing to negate the fact that even though I am writing this on a PC with dual-core super-fast processors and 3 GB of RAM, Vista only works more or less properly if I turn off everything "cool" about it. And that's only if I don't mind Windows Explorer shutting itself down four or five times a day.
Microsoft doesn't need money, or great advertising, as much as it needs a culture change.
Re:No, fake friends are obvious. (Score:3, Informative)
The big difference between then and now is that Vista offers me minimal benefits, and builds in DRM and other stuff that actually makes it more difficult to use my oomputer the way I want.
You do know that Vista's DRM only comes into play when you go buy DRMed media, right? If you buy MP3s off of Amazon Music Store, they're handled just like MP3s on XP or...well, not like MP3s on Linux; they work better out of the box.
XP had DRM, too. Or did you never use Windows Media Player with a license-protected file?
Re:Truth in advertising (Score:3, Informative)
Acutally, "in your heart, you know he's right" wasn't Nixon's. It was Goldwater's [wikipedia.org]. And it wasn't successful, possibly because it was easily parodied:
"In your guts, you know he's nuts"
"In your heart, you know he might" (might use nuclear weapons)
"In your heart, you know he's too far right"
Re:Competiton everywhere for them. (Score:3, Informative)
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard [apple.com]:
$129 for a single license ($199 for a family pack)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition [bestbuy.com]:
239.99 for a single license.
Microsoft Windows XP Pro [bestbuy.com]:
$199 for a single licence.
and, of course,
Debian GNU/Linux [debian.org]
$0, unlimited installs.
Stick OS X on a Psystar or Hackintosh, and it is cheaper. Or, if you go with a Mac Pro, the price is competitive with as-powerful hardware.