Windows 7 is here folks, as you may have heard. Or seen. Or, perhaps you heard about it from the noise around certain elements of their campaign, which are running into some bumpy terrain. Here are the cheers and jeers of the Windows 7 launch campaign:
Cheer: Microsoft reacted quickly to backlash against Windows Vista, making the decision to move on.
Jeer: They insisted on Vista for a while.
Cheer: Microsoft actually chose to sponsor a special broadcast of Family Guy!
Jeer: Then they backtracked on that decision, when someone learned that Family Guy has no sense of political correctness (PC, ironically), complementing fart jokes with jokes about the holocaust, incest and a pedophile neighbor.
Cheer: Someone had the guts to stop that sponsorship even though it was probably quite advanced. I’m always impressed when someone puts their pants on and does that.
Jeer: They should have done their homework ahead of time. It sounds like someone just said “Hey, there is a way to reach tens of millions of men aged 18 to 35 with just a few ads!” Everything probably moved forward from there, until they heard an outcry from the morals department (often the PR department, though I’m not always proud of that.)
Cheer: They are avoiding the whole Mac vs. PC confrontation; at least on the surface. I think we’ve all had enough of that crap.
Jeer: Jean-Luc points out that people in Quebec prefer local advertising, not ads from France (the demographics probably said French-speaking segment, which does not mean the same as France .)
Cheer: Despite being the biggest software company, Microsoft moves relatively fast on the market. In many cases, they try to fight like an insurgent, instead of the incumbent. IBM used to be the incumbent and ironically, it was Microsoft who was the challenger back then…
Jeer: Throughout this campaign, I never quite know what Windows7 can actually do for me. I don’t feel the NEED to get it, perhaps just the curiosity to try, as someone who plays with new stuff (poorly).
Sounds like they had the right intentions at every stage, and the preliminary thinking made sense – but the execution was not as sharp as it could have been, at least not thus far. But they are learning and listening, like an insurgent. I like that, I like that they have that hunger – not the complacency. Now if only they can get this campaign back on track…
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