Mary Jo Foley reported about this yesterday and now it's all over the news. Microsoft is gearing up to launch a $300M advertising campaign to combat the negative ads launched against them in recent years, and to rebuild the company's fading image. Since the "Get a Mac" ad campaign first started, and proved sooo effective, I've been dumbfounded by the fact that Microsoft has just sat back and taken it, one hit at a time. I even started to wonder if Microsoft would ever launch a counter strike. I finally started to conclude that maybe Microsoft isn't actually able to orchestrate a successful counter-campaign given their historic lack of creativity with all things marketing, and maybe it was better that way. Because if they actually tried to do something, and it flopped, that would make things even worse for the company.
Well, it looks like the day has finally arrived like it or not.
The key question was always…who would they use as spokesperson? Given the Mac ads, they really need just the right guy to pull it off and resonate. Well, they've chosen Jerry Seinfeld for the spokesperson role (he gets $10M), which made me really happy when I first heard about it.
Since then, however, I've been poking around to see what others are saying, and many are questioning if he's the right choice. Some say he's out-of-date. Some point to his ineffective AMEX commercials. And some say the biggest problem with Jerry is that he actually seems more like a Mac Guy. In fact, didn't Jerry have a Mac in his Seinfeld set apartment all those years? Apparently, some Microsoft partners aren't completely convinced either.
Despite Microsoft's latest attempts to improve Vista perception via The Mojave Experiment, there are some who believe that Microsoft's fundamental problem isn't lack of marketing but rather a flawed product (Vista) and that they should spend the $300M fixing that first. Some say this is just a pathetic attempt by Gates to get back at Jobs (apparently the Mac ads really ticked him off). Who knows.
I personally believe that Microsoft's move to get more aggressive with their marketing is the right call. There's simply too much negativity targeting them to withstand it sitting still. While some of the negativity may be merited, a lot of it clearly isn't, and perception is king. And I'm glad to hear that they're taking this seriously — a $300M campaign is significant — they need to do it right. Now they just need to nail the creative.
It will be very interesting, and hopefully entertaining, to watch these new ads roll out combined with the celebrity of Jerry Seinfeld.
I sure hope it works…Microsoft needs a win here.