Vista: Most Aggressive Launch Ever For Microsoft

Seeks Global 'Wow' Reaction to New OS Features

"There won't be a PC sold anywhere in the world that doesn't have Vista within six months," said Endpoint Technology Associates analyst Roger Kay, a fact that might leave ad watchers wondering why Microsoft is about to launch the product with one of the biggest marketing blitzes of all time. 'Most aggressive'This will be the company's "most aggressive launch ever," resulting in an injection, across 20 countries, of an estimated $500 million into agency and media-owner coffers -- which seems excessive for a product that will walk out of the stores on more or less every PC sold from here on in. But that's not the point, according to Microsoft -- which goes so far as to borrow from images such as a child discovering a snowfall, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Woodstock to persuade consumers that Vista is not just an operating system, but a potentially life-changing event. "Awareness is not enough," said John B. Williams, general manager-Windows global communications. "The goal for this campaign [is to] get at the heart of excitement." Several strikes against itGenerating that, and maybe getting at the heart of the mammoth marketing push, may be difficult, because although the product may become ubiquitous, it starts out with several strikes against it. First, it's from Microsoft, which detractors often paint as the monopolistic "evil empire." Then there's the fact that the product has been delayed several times and received only lukewarm reviews from analysts and beta testers. And, of course, there's Apple, which has the only other operating system. While still a small player in the computer industry, Apple has seen its market share rise from 3% to more than 5% in the past two years, thanks in part to its iPod halo effect. "They can't take any chances or leave the field pen to Apple," Mr. Kay said. "And [Microsoft] needs to spend a fair amount of effort convincing corporate clients to buy Vista." Difficult to explainLast, Vista is a difficult product to explain. It's the platform on which PCs run, but the user doesn't really see it. Marketing will help explain what Vista is and does. Some TV ads, for instance, feature 3-D flip screens with the Windows Vista border around the edge of the screen for the duration, showcasing the new Vista look. "The last time people made a decision on an operating system was five years ago -- and the world has changed dramatically since then," Mr. Williams said. "We have to show the product because when they see Windows Vista, they'll get it ... and have this kind of reaction we're looking for." And the reaction it's aiming for: "Wow." "This one word kept coming out as people sat down and played with the product," said Mike Sievert, corporate VP-Windows client marketing. "The campaign concept works very well across cultures and geographies." (Vista will have a "big advertising presence" in 20 of its 50 markets.) 6.6 billion impressionsIndeed, the planned scope of the campaign -- 6.6 billion impressions in its first few months -- is wondrous by today's narrowly targeted, niche-media standards. "The Wow starts now," two years in the making with McCann Worldgroup, encompasses an online consumer-participation promotion themed "Show us your wow" (the winner gets a trip around the world), sponsored webisodes at Clearification.com featuring "Daily Show" comedian Demitri Martin and an alternate-reality game called "Vanishing Point" that moves between online and offline. A human billboard will feature 16 dancers forming the Vista and Microsoft Office icons, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates himself will host an invitation-only party in Times Square. A slew of retail promotions are set for Jan. 30 in more than 30 markets around the country and will include Xbox giveaways and school PC-lab makeover sweepstakes, as well as rebates and special deals. Microsoft experts will be on-site to answer questions. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will greet customers at Best Buy in New York. But it's the TV ads that will garner much of the attention-and inevitably it won't be all good. The spots picture "Wow"-murmuring moments such as a '60s-looking family staring at a black-and-white TV as a rocket blasts into space, a hippie climbing up on scaffolding to look out over the Woodstock crowd, a young boy staring out his window at a early-morning snow-blanketed street, and a man putting down a chunk of rock on the table as those gathered watch the Berlin Wall being torn down on TV. The juxtaposition will provide surefire fodder for the blogosphere. LeBron JamesBasketball superstar LeBron James also lends his celebrity to the ads. In a vignette, he is playing with a group of kids when one breaks in front of him, zipping off and doing fancy dribbles down the court. Mr. James stares after him and says "Wow." At the end of every spot, a man opens his laptop in a darkened office while the voice-over intones, "Every so often you experience something so new, so delightfully unexpected, there's only one word for it."

AdAge

YouTube Fans Reject Pre-Roll

AS YOUTUBE PREPARES TO SHARE ad revenues with contributors, it may want to think twice about slapping pre-roll ads on videos. Nearly three-quarters of frequent YouTube users said they would visit the site less if it started including short video ads before every clip, according to the results of a recent Harris Poll released Monday. Of those, 42% said they would visit a little less often, and 31%, a lot less often.
YouTube has not publicly stated that it plans to add pre-roll ads to videos. But in a BBC interview after announcing YouTube's plan to start paying video contributors, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said the site may begin running three-second spots before videos.
That's far shorter than the standard 15- or 30-second pre-roll, but the addition of video ads would still mark a major shift for the company and its millions of fans. YouTube has built a huge following by making it easy to view and share videos. Hurley told the BBC that its new system for sharing ad-revenue was still being readied, and that it will roll out over the next couple of months. In a statement issued Monday, a YouTube spokesman said that the company is "actively exploring a variety of ways to help the community monetize content," and that it would announce something in the coming months.
Aongus Burke, senior research manager of Harris Interactive's media and entertainment practice, said in a statement that previous data shows consumers will watch commercials online to catch a TV episode they would otherwise miss. "Yet those who are accustomed to finding and watching everything for free at YouTube may have developed a different set of expectations for the site," he said.
In more encouraging findings for YouTube, almost one in three frequent visitors to the site said they watch less TV because of the time they spend on YouTube, according to the Harris Poll. And 42% of U.S. adults online say they have watched a video on YouTube, while 14% say they go to the site frequently.
Not surprisingly, YouTube has even higher reach among males 18 to 24 years old, with 76% saying they've watched a YouTube clip, and 41% visiting frequently. The Harris Poll was conducted online in the U.S. between December 12 and 18 among 2,309 adults, of whom 363 are frequent YouTube viewers.
In a separate analysis released Monday, Hitwise found that YouTube's market share among U.S. Web sites had increased 18.5% during the week ending January 27, when Google Video added YouTube videos to its index. On Wednesday, Jan. 24, the day before the expanded index went live, Google Video accounted for just .73% of all of YouTube's traffic. By the following Saturday, however, it was generating 8.7% of all of YouTube's upstream traffic, according to Hitwise.

MediaPost

Apple TV debate won't wait on product

Like the iPod, Apple TV could be a phenomenon. A disrupter of lesser technology. A product that finally converges the computer with the TV set.Or not.Apple Inc. executives, including CEO Steve Jobs, have been calling Apple TV a DVD player for the 21st century. They are aiming for mainstream adoption, not just the niche inhabited by technology geeks or lovers of all things Apple.Apple TV, due next month, basically is a set-top device that lets media residing in one's iTunes library, including music, TV shows, feature films and podcasts, to be enjoyed on TV screens. Wirelessly.It will come equipped with a hard drive with enough capacity for 50 hours of movies and TV shows or about 9,000 songs.Apple TV also lets users store and display on TV screens their own photos and home movies and will show movie trailers via Apple.com.Analysts and Internet bloggers have been busy trying to figure out whether Apple TV will be a hit or miss -- or something in between -- since Jobs first spoke of an iTV gadget last year. A few weeks ago, he revealed the box and its exact functionality, as well as its change of name, only further fueling the debate."Wouldn't it be nice to just scroll through a list of your movies and TV shows and just pick the one you want?" one blogger asks."Apple TV is a solution in search of a problem," counters another. "Everything this $300 thing can do for me I can do with a $20 cable and my iPod."Plus, iTunes movies and TV shows are available for purchase on DVD or could easily have been recorded by a TiVo or other DVR. The true point of iTunes video is to make portable the stuff that you once needed a TV set for, Jupiter Research analyst Todd Chanko said."Is there really going to be a market for exporting that content back to the TV?" Chanko asks.Absolutely, counters Tobin Smith of ChangeWave Research, pointing to polling data to support his assertion.In December, Smith asked 228 members of his ChangeWave Alliance who are electronics industry professionals to name the company they thought was most likely to see success with "media centers," defined as high-power devices capable of managing digital content around the home.Apple, at 43%, was tops, followed by Sony (14%), Microsoft (11%), TiVo (8%), Hewlett-Packard (7%), Samsung (4%), Cisco Systems (4%) and Dell (4%).He also asked the panel about Apple TV specifically, and 65% predicted it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to be a huge success in the first year. Only 30% predicted it was somewhat or very unlikely to succeed."It's simple," Smith said. "Apple will soon deliver the 100% turnkey home computing, viewing, listening system."Look for Apple to next start selling LCD monitors up to 65 inches with Apple TV and wireless broadband connectivity built into them, Smith said."One wireless touch-screen remote running on WiFi, one portable keyboard for e-mails and text messaging and one box to run it all wirelessly to any monitor or PC in your house," he said.Not so fast, other analysts cautioned.Citigroup's Tony Wible doesn't see Apple TV "gaining widespread adoption in the near term" because of its $299 price tag and limited storage. He also calls it a "more complicated solution" than offered by others.TiVo, and other DVRs, have similar capabilities and DVRs will "represent a viable download platform in the future" for movies, he said.Either way, Apple TV further increases the company's focus on consumer electronics and entertainment products. Its iPod business already brought in the majority of overall company revenue for its latest fiscal year.Sean Badding, a senior analyst with the Carmel Group, said that if Apple can sell 500,000 Apple TV units in the first year then he will consider it a success."It's not a breakthrough product," he said. "Networking a computer to TV wirelessly has been done before. The question is, can Apple do it better? They weren't first to market with a digital music player either, but they blew the doors off the competition with their iPod."A couple of years from now, Apple TV, in addition to what it will be when it launches next month, also might have morphed into a DVR and even a video game platform, Badding said. "Hey, it has got the Apple name and Steve Jobs at the helm, and that's what will be on people's minds when they go out there kicking the tires on Apple TV," he said.

The Hollywood Reporter