By now you’ve probably gotten a gander at Microsoft’s newest marketing ploy: a 90-second commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. But just in case you haven’t, here’s what you need to know: Seinfeld runs into Gates in a discount shoe retailer at a shopping mall. Seinfeldian silliness ensues. No mention of Microsoft is made until the last 10 seconds of the spot –– the last 10 seconds! –– when Seinfeld asks Gates for assurance that Microsoft will soon deliver a computing panacea.
Around our office, the spot has been a hot topic. Not only for its big-budget celebrity firepower, but for its brazen flouting of marketing rules. Where’s the product imagery? The litany of features and reasons to by? The logos? On its face, the commercial seems –– like Seinfeld’s TV show –– to be about nothing. But is it?
Absolutely not. In fact, it’s about something very important –– the Microsoft brand. Specifically, it’s about demonstrating that Microsoft is as hip and desirable as Apple. It’s about making us forget the stuffy, Windows-loving PC guy from the Mac commercials. And on all these fronts, I think the spot succeeds with flying colors.
Although I’ll be a Mac user until the day I die, I have to admit that I can’t stop watching, forwarding and talking about this spot. And if that’s not the hallmark of good branding, I don’t know what is.
Angela Costanzi, Director, Creative Services
