Microsoft - Seinfeld = Microsoft “I’m a PC” ads just Rock! You got it guys
Microsoft may say it was planned. Microsoft may say Seinfeld is still part of the campaign. That’s just PR and the facts are far different from the speaches. First thing is the tagline that has moved from “Future delicious” or “Perpetually connecting” to “Life without walls”. A new branding campaign has started, and after having viewed the new-new ads, it would be really hard to integrate again Seinfeld unless they want people remind the crappy ads he did with Microsoft, compared to the 3 ads that are awesome. I say that while being an Apple fan, addict, and advocate.
“I’m a PC” ads to show real people do PC
What Microsoft has to fight back is the situation Apple has set with its “Mac vs. Pc” ad series: Mac is a cool and funny guy, wealthy and connected, while PC is clumbsy and average worker style. To counter the current state, Seinfeld had been hired (and is still working for them, though I said he got fired) to show a new image of Microsoft and its latest OS, Vista. Thing he failed, with 33% of negative online reviews (source from Richmond).
The new ad series “I’m a PC” may be the answer and the counter of the “Mac vs. PC” ads. They’ve shown they were able to engage with people and start the conversation. We can read in the TechCrunch comments concerning that new brand image campaign people are interested, Mac users hat-tipping the ads when PC users are showing more confidence telling they’re PC users.
Providing PC users self-esteem and initiating engagement & conversation
The objective of the ad series is to show real people use PCs. And that they are more real people than Mac users. The ads show there are PC users all over the world and are implicitely inviting viewers to say “I’m a PC”, repeating that sentence all along the ads. Crispin Porter + Bogusky is playing with the idea that the few crowd of Mac users can’t be right since there are so many interesting and different people using PCs. Leveraging that idea, the agency wants to make Windows users rise, get more confidence, and get more self-esteem. Which may soon be true.
Added to that advertising plan (Attention Marketing as I explain here) there is a small item that is actually the more interesting part of the campaign: a link to page where you can copy/ paste a badge telling “I’m a PC”. It doesn’t seem to be a Microsoft initiative but still it would be a really nice idea from the Richmond company to support people showing they’re PCs and invite their customers to show they’re as good as Mac users.
But the game is just starting, Apple having released in the same of the Microsoft videos an online media planning on Wall Street Journal and NYTimes (at least) using the Mac vs. PC ads (here and here). And for the moment, when searching in Google “I’m a PC, you got the Apple ads page”.
The ad series:
More :
I’m a PC website
I’m a PC: Microsoft unveils new ads from Brand Builder Blog
I’m a PC from Steve Clayton’s blog (MSDN)
Review of the Internet news of the Day - Fast.Fwd.Innov@tion | September 19th, 2008 at 3:01 pm #
[...] Microsoft - Seinfeld = Microsoft “I’m a PC” ads just rock! your got it guys: Microsoft may say it was planned. Microsoft may say Seinfeld is still part of the campaign. That’s just PR and the facts are far different from the speaches. First thing is the tagline that has moved from “Future delicious” or “Perpetually connecting” to “Life without walls”. A new branding campaign has started, and after having viewed the new-new ads, it would be really hard to integrate again Seinfeld unless they want people remind the crappy ads he did with Microsoft, compared to the 3 ads that are awesome… Read more on this blog. [...]