microsoft's new "i'm a pc" tv ad - finally an ad in english that we can all understand! what happened to seinfeld?

TAGLINE : WINDOWS. LIFE WITHOUT WALLS.

finally, microsoft launched a tv ad that is in english, something we all understand what it means. this is one is focused on showing people from all walks of life, ages, passions and achievements saying "i am a pc". it's a direct answer to the apple tv spots and shows how pervasive and wide microsoft is, showing the brand's dominant market share.

what happened to jerry seinfeld? he is nowhere in this ad. seinfeld together with bill gates were in the first two tv spots of microsoft. the first two ads to me were completely out of this world and i mean that in a bad way.

the first two ads were saying a lot of things, it had copy and storylines but the words didn't seem to mean anything. it didn't make a sale of any sort and it's humor completely unremarkable that only the writer seem to understand it's funny. well, actually nobody is certain if it's supposed to be funny. we just assume they are because seinfeld is in the ads.

it is very strange that seinfeld is no longer in the latest microsoft ad. they did make a big deal about signing seinfeld. being a great fan of the seinfeld, the tv show, we were expecting gang-buster ads. that didn't happen so it seems. the only thing that has happened so far is that seinfeld got busted in this 3rd ad.

microsoft's seinfeld pool out tv spot launched, i think...

tagline : perpetually connecting

i thought this was a joke, but it's for real, microsoft has launched the pool-out of their seinfeld tv spot. the one where they intend to spend $300M on. and the one that is supposed to address microsoft's weakening brand image.

we're posting it here for everyone to view it while we sit and watch this over and over again to try to understand the ad.

this ad was developed by an award winning ad agency, with a track record of success. it must be real good. will be back soon!





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microsoft seinfeld ad's hidden meanings discovered!

ads are supposed to be self-explanatory, not to mention they are supposed to be interesting. advertising talks about ad clutter and the fight for the attention of the audience. ads don't just fight against invisible enemies like boredom and disinterest, they also fight against a very concrete and real enemy -the tv remote control unit and the dreaded "change channel" button.

you know an ad is in trouble, that you have done a lousy ad and it's a WAWAM! when you lose on all fronts, above. the first sign and this is an absolute disaster, is when you find yourself having to defend and explain the meaning of an ad you just launched.

and that is what micrsosoft has been doing on their seinfeld tv ad since they launched their tv spot last thursday.

WAWAM! is again posting a link to this ad so that readers of this blog can watch it again.




after being in the advertising industry for a long time, i normally have to see an ad only once and i can tell if it's a good ad or not. it comes with years of training and thousands of ads that i have viewed and analyzed. i only view an ad more than once, usually 3 at the most when i need to make a formal analysis of it, something written and there is something wrong with it and need to find exactly what went wrong. this microsoft tv spot, i had to view 6 times.

after becoming a veteran watcher of this tv spot, i think i have found the secret meaning of the ad. as i have said, the power and the meaning of this ad is not obvious. it's not at all self-explanatory and that is why i embarked on a self-exploration of the tv spot.

since the meaning of this ad is not self-explanatory, i am forcing myself to draw the meanings from it :

• the ad is about the problems of vista -- if at first install, there's a problem with it, over time, with hard work and lots of fixing, it becomes ok. that's what happened to the shoes bill gates bought. they didn't fit at first but with some stretching and a change in size, it turned out ok.


• talks about value - with bill gates himself buying cheap shoes, it tells you that windows is good value on the long term. who would imagine bill gates buying cheap shoes? there is supposed to be humor in that. please, laugh.


• the everyday-ness of the ad talks about how we use windows on a daily basis. and that it holds promise for the future. that's the last part of the ad. really, it is.


• why bill gates wiggled his behind to fix his shorts is another story all together. don't ask me about that, i don't know everything. i guess there is also humor in that? laugh, please.

conclusion - yes, it's a boring ad. it suffers from a bad case of ADS! Sindrome. i had to firce myself to pick out those meanings from the ad.

the microsoft chief marketing officer said the ad was meant to start a conversation. first time i have heard of an ad like that and i honestly do not know what he means exactly by that.

aren't ads supposed to build brand equity? build brand image? persuade people? what happened to those? does that mean this ad is really not an ad? it's like a teaser for future ads?

it seems to me its all an excuse for coming up with a boring ad. if it's just talk or discussion that is their objective, they have achieved it. people are talking about it but unfortunately for the wrong reasons. most of the talk that has occurred centered on why they don''t like the ad and asking each other what the ad means. why spend money on ad that is not really an ad?

if this is just a teaser ad for future ads, i am totally scared to see the next ones! this ad is like a sample of what is to come, a track record established and it does not make me feel excited about the next ads. if the teaser ad is this boring, how can be next one do better?

no matter how you look at it, it's a WAWAM!

read more posts on this microsoft and apple ads here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/i%20am%20mac%20i%20am%20pc

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Microsoft tries to explain Seinfeld ad
Deborah Gage
Saturday, September 6, 2008


Did you "get" the new Microsoft commercial? Apparently, some people didn't, so Microsoft officials were calling reporters Friday to explain it.

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Nevertheless, the Microsoft officials who phoned reporters Friday said it is indeed a campaign to brand Windows, "the start of a conversation ... easily the largest marketing campaign we've ever had."

article parsed, read in full here : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/05/BU7Q12P30T.DTL

microsoft's $300M seinfeld ad campaign has ADS? Sindrome

tagline : The Future. Delicious.

microsoft launched the much anticipated $300M ad campaign featuring jerry seinfeld last thursday. this ad campaign intends to shore up microsoft's sagging brand image due to problems on vista and as a reaction to the growing popularity of apple computers and its OS. apple has also been running ads that was chipping away on windows brand image highligthing the problems with vista.

we love jerry's seinfeld tv show because it is about "nothing". well, this microsoft ad seem to have followed the same concept from that tv show. microsoft's seinfeld tv ad is also about nothing, only it's quite literal and we don't find it funny at all. could it be because instead of having seinfeld's 3 other friends in the tv show on the ad, we only have bill gates in it with seinfeld?

in line with the seinfeld storyline of "nothing", this is what this ad is all about - a day in the life of jerry seinfeld's walk in a mall and bill gate's purchase of a cheap pair of shoes. you know how it is, these multi-billionaires have the same lives as we do. as we cross paths with acquaintances in shopping malls, bill and jerry experience the same thing.

there is no mention of the word "w-i-n-d-o-w-s" in the tv ad, either spoken as a word or spelled as you read it here. and that makes sense. i take that to mean they recognize the fact that in our daily lives, we don't really say that word, specially when we are in a store buying for shoes. thank God for such brilliance.

i think what the ad seeks to do is to pull us in into the everyday life of bill gates as he buys cheap shoes. never mind that bill gates has enough money to buy anywhere from 217 to 2,170 shoe factories not only china but in every country in the world. you see, gates in his slightly untucked shirt is like everyone else.

somewhere in that ad is a consumer insight. with seinfeld in the ad, then bill gates himself and a $300M ad budget, we all expect this ad at minimum will have a brilliant consumer insight. bill and jerry, though in very different businesses, both built their fortunes and popularity on their uncanny skill at picking out consumer insights. i mean that in a most serious way.

seinfeld the tv show became the icon that it is because it was great in showing us who we are in our daily lives and make it incredibly funny. same thing with gates - he had the uncanny ability to extract what exactly we need in our current and future computer needs.

the consumer insight is there in this commercial. i will let you know as soon as i find it.

i wondered a lot when micrsosoft announced jerry seinfeld will appear in its commercials. we all know him from his tv show but the current audience know him from the re-runs of his shows. that is the biggest problem in choosing him for this ad project. on the other hand, jerry has great comedic timing, aside from being a great and funny writer. so i thought maybe seinfeld is not a bad choice. seinfeld's stand-up comedy revolves around ordinary, simple and everyday things that he somehow finds some great humor in them and we laugh with him when he says things like that. so, it could be a very interesting commercial.

then i saw this ad! i was giving myself the chance to accept jerry seinfeld in a microsoft commercial but i totally closed out when i saw the ad - i didn't expect that aside from seinfeld, they will actually use the storylines in the seinfeld tv show - all about nothing. what happened to interesting ads? smart ads? entertaining ads? if you have seinfeld in your ad, at minimum you expect him to be funny. but seinfeld was nowhere near funny in this ad. he was just nothing.

and why is bill gates in the ad? that's a separate discussion all together for another day.

by this time, you might be wondering already what is the point i am making in this post. WAWAM! is supposed to be about understanding tv ads, why they work and why they don't work.

and that is exactly it -- this is a post about nothing. the ad has nothing, what else can i say? wait a minute, it has something - it has ADS? Sindrome and that makes it a WAWAM!









read more posts on this microsoft and apple ads here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/i%20am%20mac%20i%20am%20pc

read posts in WAWAM! on microsoft's ad campaign here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/microsoft

read about ADS? Sindrome here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/08/wawam-launches-ano-daw-sabi-ads.html

apple vs microsoft advertising war

Microsoft Enlists Jerry Seinfeld In Its Ad Battle Against Apple
By SUZANNE VRANICA and ROBERT A. GUTH


Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.'s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld.


The software giant's new $300 million advertising campaign, devised by a newly hired ad agency, has been closely guarded. But Mr. Seinfeld will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen, say people close to the situation. He will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in ads and receive about $10 million for the work, they say.


The new ad effort is expected to use some variation of the slogan "Windows, Not Walls," according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people say the point is to stress breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting. The campaign, said to debut Sept. 4, is one of the largest in the company's history.


The attempted image overhaul comes as Microsoft executives privately acknowledge that Windows -- the company's most important brand -- has grown stale and has been battered by Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads. Those ads, created by Omnicom Group Inc.'s TBWA/Chiat/Day, feature a nerdy PC guy getting upstaged by a hip Mac counterpart.


Microsoft's immediate goal is to reverse the negative public perception of Windows Vista, the latest version of the company's personal-computer operating system. Windows is Microsoft's largest generator of profit and revenue, accounting for 28% of the company's revenue of $60.4 billion in the year ended June 30.


The software has sold well, and Microsoft retains an overwhelming share of the market for operating system software over Apple. But Apple's computer sales have been rising, and Vista is dogged by the notion that it has technical shortcomings and is hard to use. Apple's latest Mac vs. PC ads take swipes at Vista. Microsoft says early problems with Vista have been largely alleviated.


While Apple's digs at Microsoft through its advertising campaign have been vexing, Apple is on a hot streak with its products that Microsoft hasn't been able to match. Apple's Macintosh computer business is dwarfed by Microsoft's share of the PC software market, but it has been gaining on its larger rival, accounting for 7.8% of new PC shipments in the U.S. in the second quarter, compared with 6.2% during the same period the prior year, according to research firm IDC. The vast majority of the rest of the market is made up of Windows PCs.


During the second quarter, Apple said it sold 41% more Macs than it did during the same period the prior year; that compares with growth of 15.3% in total PC shipments world-wide, according to IDC. Apple's desktop and notebook computers have won converts among onetime Windows loyalists.


Crucial Role


Microsoft's campaign highlights the crucial role of Windows in the company's broader efforts to expand into new areas. Money from that division is invested into other areas, such as online services that are crucial to Microsoft's long-term growth. Windows is also a bedrock product for sales of other Microsoft software, such as the Office group of programs.


"They are not seen as cool," says Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a New York branding firm. "Apple is cool. Can anyone even recall a Microsoft ad? No." Apple and its brand-obsessed CEO, Steve Jobs, have been producing distinctive advertising since its famous "1984" campaign, which debuted that year in the Super Bowl.


In an email to Microsoft employees in July, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer wrote, "Now it's time to tell our story."

He added: "In the weeks ahead, we'll launch a campaign to address any lingering doubts our customers may have about Windows Vista." He said that later in the year the company will roll out "a more comprehensive effort to redefine the meaning and value of Windows for our customers."

Microsoft's large business-to-business presence has always made for a difficult marketing mix with consumer branding. Windows is used by both constituencies.

Mr. Seinfeld is just one piece of the makeover. The campaign will likely include videos of recent consumer focus groups that Microsoft held. In the studies, participants -- who said they had negative impressions of Vista -- were shown a version of Windows called "Mojave." After trying Mojave and liking it, the participants were told that the software was actually Windows Vista.
The campaign is the brainchild of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a Miami-based ad shop that has helped revitalize brands such as Burger King. Microsoft hired the firm earlier this year after considering several ad agencies including WPP Group PLC's JWT, Publicis Groupe's Fallon and its longtime agency Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson.


Big Test

The campaign is a big test for Crispin Porter + Bogusky. In choosing the firm, a unit of MDC Partners, Microsoft broke from McCann Erickson, which has managed the software maker's previous efforts including the 2002 "Realizing Potential" Microsoft corporate ad campaign and the "Start Something" campaign for Windows XP in 2005. McCann remains on Microsoft's agency roster working on other Microsoft ad duties such as Xbox.


While Crispin Porter + Bogusky has won awards for its Burger King ads, which highlighted the company's king pitchman, not all its pitches have hit the mark. The agency had come up short on its work for Miller Lite with its "Man Laws" ad campaign that featured boxer Oscar De La Hoya and actor Burt Reynolds. The work failed to increase sales. The two companies eventually parted ways.


Even though Mr. Seinfeld's popular sitcom stopped production in 1998, the 54-year-old comic still has major appeal with consumers, according to Davie-Brown Entertainment, a marketing company owned by Omnicom Group. The comedian ranks 41st out of more than 1,900 celebrities in terms of broad appeal, the firm's data show.


Still, after 10 years of reruns and only occasional appearances by Mr. Seinfeld in the media, keeping the franchise fresh with younger adults is a concern. Last week, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Television, which distributes "Seinfeld" in U.S. syndication, announced the "Seinfeld Campus Tour," in which it's sending a 60-foot "Seinfeld"-themed bus to U.S. colleges to drum up interest in "a new generation of viewers," a spokeswoman said.


Mr. Seinfeld had been a spokesman for American Express, and his "Superman" commercials and Web videos in 2004 won raves. People familiar with the Microsoft campaign say that the company was aware of trying too hard to pander to youth, so didn't want a celebrity that was too hip, or a possible flash-in-the-pan.






source:
thttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB121928939429159525.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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