Category: Marketing
How NOT to do Marketing…Microsoft Style
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Recently I was trying to sign up for a Hotmail account (forgive me) and I came across this ad for imtalkathon.com blog. Oh interesting, clicked ad, what is this about?
Cool? This guy blog is about a guy who wants to chat on IM / email for 30 days to raise money for causes. Relatively, cool idea.
But…it turns out if you read the disclaimer this is coordinated by McCann group and sponsored by Microsoft who is running the im initiative thingy. Some stupid idea to give money for using their service.
Problems with this “blog”?
1) It is so unauthentic it’s not even funny.
2) If people don’t want to create stuff for your initiatives faking users is not the best way to go.
3) Fake comments also aren’t smart. (18 on the post, ha!)
4) Why are you using some semi-hipster actor as the person?
5) They have a disclaimer saying this is fake.
6) Signing up for twitter, flickr & linkedin does not make you a hipster 2.0.
Can you imagine these high paid ad agencies meetings about this? ” Oh, I’ve got it. We’ll fake that people care about Microsoft and make a blog faking it. ” Makes total sense! Most likely the same people that fake it during sex with me:P
link to comments
Suggestions:
1) Embrace your crappiness. Seriously. Not a bad thing but play on the fact you are old, slow, copy others and haven’t come out with any impressive things in a few years. I am totally serious. People appreciate honesty. Make it fun.
2) Do the opposite. People aren’t creating fan sites or blogs like they do for Google, Flickr, Facebook, etc… Why not create a anti-fan page. Similar to #1, make this blog by Microsoft stating things not good about Microsoft. Rally people around it and make those changes. Scoble was a face of Microsoft that at least brought together, absorbed comments, defended, agreed with people and made the company “seem” real.
3) Create a better product. That would be too easy. If you made messenger good vs. giving money out then maybe you can increase your market share. I don’t think giving money back for using a service but the old use our service so we can a) help children b) donate to charity thing is played out. Why not just give us free gasoline for a year.
Best joke about this wins Ori’s book: Sway or a book of your choice. I’m feeling good:)
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Noah Kagan wrote How NOT to do Marketing…Microsoft Style on June 18th, 2008 and there are 9 comments. There will be one more after you add yours, though. Read more posts by Noah Kagan.
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9 Responses to “How NOT to do Marketing…Microsoft Style”
June 19th, 2008
12:38 pm
Microsoft is so cheezy.
June 22nd, 2008
6:27 pm
Microsoft has an unenviable challenge, and that is they have a lot of baggage. If the first thing people think of when your company is mentioned is ‘crashes all the time’, you’ve got a problem.
However, the IM for the common good, is a nice tactic. It’s very hard to hate on a brand if they are socially conscious, and donating money for every IM is unprecedented. The problem is, as you say Noah, essentially boils down to, ‘where’s the beef?’
Social consciousness is great at reversing poor brand perception, look at GE and the ‘imagination’ and ‘eco-imagination’ campaigns? People forget that GE was reviled not that long ago. But in the end, you need to deliver a product people want to use everyday, and the use of fake people is completely antithetical to the message of helping the common good.
June 24th, 2008
4:32 pm
Jeez. This is pretty bad. What kind of a name is Parker Whittle anyway? Sounds like a Darthmouth College alt rock band.
June 24th, 2008
4:33 pm
Shit, typo. Meant to type Dartmouth. Goodbye free copy of Sway.
June 27th, 2008
12:19 am
I actually dont think it is that bad an idea, but LOL: embrace your crappiness! Am still chortling.
June 28th, 2008
12:56 pm
This surprises me. Unauthentic marketing campaigns are so 2006. They seem a few years behind.
July 14th, 2008
2:02 am
hey Noah, Parker (aka Da P-Whitt) has branched off - don’t worry, he’s still (incessantly) extolling the virtues of Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger and blogging for the greater good - he’s just doing it on more than one site
check it out:
Parker Whittle from the i’m Initiative!
“LOL!”
July 14th, 2008
11:14 pm
Oh dear lord, who thinks up of such stunts at Microsoft? Totally uncool. AND why do you want a hotmail account in this day and age?
August 21st, 2008
7:42 am
No wonder Google is God with competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft. I agree with Devin, a company needs to have authentic marketing. Companies will be outed with this new form of decentralized media. There are no more secrets, so just be honest. It will help a company more in the long term.
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