Microsoft seeks Apple-like coolness with $300 million ad campaign
It has to be difficult, being just as old as Apple but never really having that youthful glow that Apple created when Steve Jobs returned to the company in the late 1990s. Microsoft sees that being cool actually has very real value, and was willing to pay a large $300 million in hopes of getting a cool makeover.
According to ZDNet, the $300 million Microsoft spent on a new advertising campaign focused on revamping its coolness went to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, an advertising group known for making appealing ad campaigns. The advertising group is behind the likes of Coke Zero, Know Aids/HIV, Burger King, Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Nike, Sprite, Volkswagon, Truth, and more.
Oddly enough for an advertising group that is known for generating “cool,” one of its creative directors said, “To try to be cool is not to be cool.” But, they’re always up for a challenge.
Of course, the only reason Microsoft has to gain Apple-like appeal is due to Apple’s own advertising campaign which disparages Windows Vista up and down. Apple has even mocked Microsoft for allowing consumers to continue purchasing XP at the same time Microsoft was trying to promote and sell Vista.
The writer of blog What Would Dad Say provides a few suggestions (for a substantially smaller price than $300 million) for a new Microsoft campaign. The writer suggests bringing Bill Gates back into the mix, attacking Uncle Steve himself and revamping the Windows logo (by dropping the flag thing). Those don’t sound like altogether horrible ideas, but the worst mistake Microsoft or the Crispin people can make is to try to replicate Apple’s marketing methods. After all, isn’t that where Vista went wrong in the first place?
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May 20th, 2008
In order to be more like Apple they would also need to lose 90% of their marketshare.
May 20th, 2008
My main point, given in good humor, was that B Gates is so much Microsoft, that only he can really come in and make the necessary, believable changes. It will be such a difficult task for anyone, he would, at least, be able to hit the ground running.
May 20th, 2008
A great MSFT commercial would be like this.
“Windows is Better than Mac, Microsoft is cooler than Apple”…then cut away and show Ballmer at the podium and the eggs being thrown at him…and then it will say “Microsoft works better no matter what is thrown at it…Microsoft cool under fire…Microsoft so cool that Apples can’t be thrown against it” … cut away and show Ballmer throwing a chair at a Apple computer”..and the commercial ends.
That would be the greatest commercial ever made.
May 29th, 2008
Lost cause. Billysoft – Bill Gates + Microsoft – simply have too many problems.
Who’s the epitome of greed? Bill Gates. Arrogance? Bill Gates. Nerdiness? Bill Gates.
Microsoft is the corporation most associated with monopolism, FUD and poor security. Generations of dirty business tactics and criminal behavior – as evidenced by countless lawsuits and raids on M$ offices in other nations – have taken a toll.
Unfortunately, the corporate media still manage to brainwash many people into believing that Bill Gates is a decent person – even a philanthropist.
But I’m broadcasting the truth on my new website, Billysoft. I’m also running for public office in Bill Gates’ backyard, and I’m making M$ a campaign issue.
Bill Gates should be behind bars. Now that would be cool.
David Blomstrom
August 7th, 2008
As with software, so with marketing. Microsoft remain what they have always been: they are a follower, not a leader.