Comments on: Microsoft’s baffling “I’m a PC” campaign

By: Microsoft Gets It Right | Velocity - the B2B marketing acceleration agency for technology companies

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:59:50 +0000

[...] given Microsoft some bad reviews here — especially for the “I’m a PC” ad campaign, so it feels only fair to give them some credit when they get it [...]

By: Velocity December Newsletter: Tech-speak, feature-talk or benefit babble? | Velocity - the B2B marketing acceleration agency for technology companies

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:56:29 +0000

[...] And why we think it’s a really, really embarrassing mistake. [...]

By: Doug Kessler

Doug Kessler — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:51:42 +0000

This post generated a mini-storm over on the LinkedIn Pro Marketers group:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=21005&trk=anet_ug_hm

It’s amazing how polarised the Mac/PC thing is — like red and blue states.

Whichever side you’re on, the question is whether or not this was a good strategy for Microsoft. I think it was a howler.

They could have celebrated the diversity of the PC base (much more diverse than Mac’s) without starting from a defensive posture. Instead, they’re spending a fortune telling the world how much their feelings were hurt by Apple’s teasing — and how they ARE really cool.

By: John

John — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:02:30 +0000

As someone who’s moved over from PC to Mac in the last year (and also spent nearly 4 years at Microsoft) I’ve been on both sides. Mac users are overly smug and have an inflated view of the “power & experience” of the Mac platform. Yes, I love my Mac, but its not THAT good guys. Shock horror – it does crash and sometimes things don’t work! And Microsoft is completely obsessed with being as cool as Apple and desperately falls short of the mark.

What Apple has in its favour is its been focussed on building an emotional and in the main, clear, message over decades. MSFT loves to launch a new campaign every 6-12 months. Plus at the end of the day Apple controls the entire supply chain so can deliver a complete experience. MSFT currently can’t do that, when their hardware partners are churning out cheaper and cheaper PCs with dubious build quality.

You can’t compare the two and MSFT should fight on their own ground, work out their own identity and deliver a message consistently over more than a year. Remember a marketing campaign, like a dog, is for life, not just for christmas.

Doug – you loving the power of Linkedin?!!

By: Ed Stivala

Ed Stivala — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:30:52 +0000

I disagree – I like the campaign and think it is a good example of whit in advertising. Far from being poor work I think it is quite a good move.

Having read your posting a asked a small random sample of people what they thought and only two out of eight didn’t get it! (I do realise that my sample of eight is insignificantly small and also skewed – but it was just a quick sanity check!).

Clearly some will miss the point and it will go over their heads – but that will always be the case

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:50:44 +0000

I respectfully disagree. I found Microsoft’s ads to be witty, entertaining, and down-to-earth, and they accomplished exactly what Microsoft wanted: they resonated with people. Do a search for “I’m a PC” and you’ll find thousands of videos of people who were motivated to make their own video. Sure it’s a blatant rebuttal. Big deal.

By: Kim Mills

Kim Mills — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:38:19 +0000

Hear! Hear! Well said. I thought I was the only marketing geek out there who yells at the tv during bad commercials as much as insane political rhetoric! These lame PC spots encapsulate everything wrong with Microsoft. They rip off other people’s good ideas, turn them into behemoths – with no sense of urgency, and then proceed to shove their ill-conceived, poorly developed concepts down the public’s throat. I’m not sure whether I should laugh or scream at the irony that these commercials do a fair job at delivering expectations about their products. This campaign is the equivalent of a bad comb-over.

By: Stuart Greenfield

Stuart Greenfield — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:21:53 +0000

You are absolutely right. It is firstly a very poor piece of work and has not even been re-written for a UK audience. Secondly it has taken an Apple idea which shows an incredible lack of creativity and imagination by the Microsoft marketing managers and the ad agency they use. All this ad does is remind you how good the Apple ads are. It does not give you any compelling reason to either use a microsoft product or swap to them or upgrade. It is is just a very poor piece of work that does not connect with any audience.

I have been in advertising for 20 years and I really believe that Microsoft is a great company who have changed the world, probably more so than any other business in the last 20 years, they don’t need to do this. They obviously have a massive confidence issues at the moment. We all need Microsof to do well and offer competition to Google. How can we help?

By: Doug Kessler

Doug Kessler — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:23:59 +0000

Nice one, Paul. Skateboard meets super-tanker.

By: Paul Danter

Paul Danter — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:23:20 +0000

…and the crack team at Apple responded in a matter of days in the US with the ‘Bean Counter’ Ad which makes fun of the marketing spend. PC piles money into two groups ‘marketing’ and ‘fix vista’. The latter pile is almost empty.

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/ – Title: “Bean Counter”.