Brand: Microsoft
Execution: Print
Link: Coming Soon
Target: IT Managers
Reviewer: Paul Koulogeorge

Reviewer Profile: Paul is Vice President of Marketing for EB Games, former Director of Marketing at Coca-Cola and former marketing strategist with Kraft. Click Here for more info on Paul.

Rating: ****

What Works:
Dinosaurs. Talk about breaking through the clutter. These adds are running in the Wall Street Journal and every major business publication. I assure you there are NO OTHER ads featuring dinosaurs, no less dinosaurs working in an office setting. Additionally, these are the cheapest looking dinosaur costumes and settings that you’ve ever seen. That also grabs your eye. It isn’t a slick ad, it is all about function.

Microsoft Office has only one competitor…older versions of Microsoft office. They’ve seen the enemy and it is themselves. They can’t criticize Microsoft but they can, subtly, dig at those people who still use Office 2000.

Additionally, they use real world situations featuring these very cheap dinosaur costumes. One features a dinosaur who accidentally sends sensitive data to all his (or is it a her dinosaur?) coworkers. The pictures set up the situation and the copy explains how the latest version of Office would have prevented this mistake. Brilliant. Real world problem solved…but you need to upgrade!!!

Unlike the silly Microsoft Corporate campaign “Your Potential, Our Passion” these ads address real issues and shows real solutions. That approach should build the brand and sales!

Added Bonus, Kids love dinosaurs. I was reading the Wall Street Journal (the least kid friendly periodical around) and when I turned the page to the Microsoft ad and my nieces eyes lit up…”Look Dinosaurs.” Also, who hasn’t once described their co-worker as a dinosaur.

What Doesn’t:
Not much doesn’t work. I would say the one risk in the campaign is does it make the IT department software decision maker feel ridiculed? No one wants to be perceived as a dinosaur. In fact, since everyone uses Microsoft Office do they risk insulting all current users? I’m guessing no. None of the situations involve the IT department so they may laugh at all the problems caused by the dinosaurs. Additionally, the ads are playful so all the current users should look at the dinosaurs as funny spokespeople who have a solution to their real problems.

An additional risk is does the cheap looking and cheap looking dinosaur make the product seem cheap? Again, I’m guessing no. Everyone has used this product so they know about its quality. If this was a new high-end product I wouldn’t recommend going cheap but this is a product we all know and use everyday.

Branding Bottom Line:
The cheap and simple Microsoft Office print ads win the day by using eye catching imagery to solve an everyday problem. It is believable and memorable. This campaign should build the brand by adding some fun to the product and should build sales by pointing out
the problems solved by converting to a newer version of Office!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 9th, 2005 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.