I’m certainly not the first and won’t be the last to comment on the new Microsoft, Seinfeld/Gates ad. But sometimes, you simply have to vent your spleen.
I learned of Microsoft’s Hail Mary attempt to revive Vista a few months ago in Fast Company (”Can Hotshot Ad Guy Alex Bogusky Make Microsoft Cool?“) and remember thinking: “What in the world will this Bogusky guy come up with? What incredible, reality-altering shade of lipstick could he possibly manufacture that would make people want to start dating this pig called Vista?
Now that the first commercial of the campaign has premiered, it seems clear that the problem is not in the execution (I’ll leave that analysis to madmen), but in Microsoft’s understanding of their fundamental business problem.
How do you create fans (or fanboys)? You build a better product. Something worth being a fan of. Something that, dare I say, has some “wow.” That’s it, kids. As Seth Godin continually reminds us, the product is the marketing. No amount of clever advertising can turn a crappy product into a long-term winner.
Well, I suppose a monopoly is pretty useful for long-term success. But the very impetus for this $300 million campaign by Microsoft is the fact that the MSFT monopoly is long over and consumers are flocking to alternative, truly delicious, platforms.
Update on 9/10:
I missed a NY Times article “Microsoft Works to Perfect Windows,” in which Bill Veghte, the exec in charge of Vista, says that Microsoft also hopes to improve the product itself. From the article:
Corps of Microsoft engineers, for example, have been dispatched to tweak hardware and software to make Vista PCs faster and less crash-prone. Microsoft has stepped into the world of PC retailers in a way it never has before, offering training and advice — and even paying to put hundreds of “Windows gurus†in stores.
Off topic, but I wonder what will happen when Windows gurus and Mac geniuses cross paths on coffee breaks at the mall?
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