Microsoft “Rockin’ Our Sales” Video

April 28th, 2008 by Debra

There seems to be a bit of a debate surrounding the really silly, although somewhat humorous Microsoft video on YouTube called “Rockin’ Our Sales” (see below). This video reminds me of those multi-media productions that I viewed at annual sales conferences. The difference between what we saw in private hotel ball rooms and this is the effect of social media.

Reviews of this effort are very mixed. CK’s Blog post Dear Microsoft: Please stay dorky. It’s who you are…and it works, CK gives Microsoft credit for showing their “dorkiness” in this video rather than put on the staid, corporate boring presentations. In her words:

Ah, that’s much more in-line with a brand that will always be associated with America’s #1 Geek Bill Gates.

On the other hand, Drew McLellan was a bit more concerned about the perception it gives to the world that may not understand the reasoning behind making the video in the first place. In his post, When an internal corporate video goes terribly wrong, he feels that:

In “today’s world, you can’t really afford to be this lame, even if it is a joke.”

My personal opinion is that this video is absurdly funny if you just view it as it was probably intended. And I truly believe that Microsoft knew this video would get out onto YouTube and probably did it on purpose. Look at the attention Microsoft is getting for Vista SP1. Nothing goes viral faster than something that is supposed to be “for internal use only”. Someone in Microsoft marketing took a chance and brilliantly got their message out.

But I do agree with Drew on the lesson that should be learned. In today’s social media world, everything you create can and will get out into the public and will take on a life of its own. When you create something that you may think is only for certain eyes, think again. Those who see the video will judge you on their perception of how you should behave and a harmless joke might harm your brand.

Marketing is About Education, Not Sales

Posted in Social Media Marketing | Permalink | 4 Comments »
Tags: brand, Microsoft Vista SP1, viral marketing, youtube video

Comments

Comment from CK
Time: April 28, 2008, 3:20 pm

Thanks for covering this and weighing-in. I do wonder if they intended for it to get out “into the wild” (shared with the external world vs. just internal sales). But as I showed it to some of my colleagues for their reactions, I noticed later in the day that the jingle was in my head–not that I’m the audience for SP1…or that I listen to this type of music (ha, ha).

I just hope their sales force gets more of these types of presentations at meetings rather than stale powerpoints loaded with product benefits on bar charts (those are rather tedious to sit through). But I still say, this is very in-line with their brand–Apple is the hipster, Microsoft is the Geek…and it works for both brands to stay true to their brand “roots”.

Glad to know of your blog now ;-).

Comment from Debra
Time: April 28, 2008, 4:40 pm

Thanks CK – appreciate you stopping by. I actually watched it a couple of times. The first time my reaction was “oh how silly” but then the second time the humor struck me.

I hope the folks at MS aren’t that naive to think that this wouldn’t get out onto YouTube, so I’ll give them credit for the publicity they are getting. And if by chance they didn’t plan on it going viral, well they learned something about social media now!

But you’re right – this video will be remembered long after the “blah blah blah Vista” PowerPoints.

Comment from Drew McLellan
Time: May 4, 2008, 1:13 am

Debra,

I suppose this is one of those “we’ll never know the true story” situations. You’re right…they have received a lot of buzz.

But, I’m not sure it’s the kind of buzz I’d want. I don’t remember one thing they said about Vista — do you?

I completely agree that it was probably a fun purely internal piece. But is there such a thing anymore?

Great meeting you!

Drew

Comment from Debra
Time: May 4, 2008, 10:05 am

Drew,

The video was not something that I remembered the specifics, but I do know that there’s an update to Vista, which I didn’t know before. How valuable that is from a marketing perspective is unclear as I don’t run Vista.

But I sure hope that this event doesn’t cause corporate marketers to take a more conservative approach and not have fun for fear of it going public and being misunderstood by the general population. As long as the company stays true to their brand, there should be no harm done.

Nice meeting you too, Drew!

Microsoft “Rockin’ Our Sales” Video

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