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Microsoft products get family-oriented ad boost


In a move perceived as taking a cue from Apple, Microsoft is giving its Xbox gaming console, Windows Phone platform and Office products a family-oriented ad push. Marketing news site Advertising Age reported the massive global TV and Web campaign will start on National Football League (NFL) Sunday. “(The campaign is) much like a family portrait rather than individual headshots," David Webster, Microsoft’s chief marketing strategist, said in an interview with AdAge. He said the campaign is about technology that brings families together, rather than isolates people when they are together. Webster also said this will be the first time Microsoft will advertise four products at once. On the other hand, AdAge said the campaign, with the tagline “It’s a great time to be a family," also marks a return to high spending for TV advertising for Microsoft. “The idea here is to take Microsoft’s one very-hot consumer product, Xbox Kinect, and connect it to other Microsoft devices built to work seamlessly together," it said. It added this is similar to the push by Apple, whose entire range of products is pitched a lifestyle portfolio for the entire family. AdAge said Webster did not disclose Microsoft’s total budget for the campaign, which spans many markets and includes high-profile TV inventory. But it said Microsoft has traditionally been a big ad spender, being a top-50 U.S. advertiser in 2010 with $926.3 million in spending, according to Ad Age Data Center. Of that, more than $400 million went behind the Microsoft brand, more than $100 million behind Bing and almost $60 million for Xbox and its games. No dialog AdAge said the creative concept will run in 35 global markets, including the United States. The ads themselves have no dialog, so many versions of the same ads will air around the world with actors of different ethnicities and local music. Some international versions are made for India and Japan, but these will also air in the U.S., it added. Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the agency that launched Windows Phone, created the new Microsoft “family" campaign and Starcom Mediavest Group planned and bought media, which will include TV spots and pre-roll video online. Wunderman helped globalize the campaign and R/GA created website pages to display products on sale for global markets. Apple’s digital hub AdAge drew comparisons between Microsoft’s campaign and Apple’s digital “digital hub" strategy launched a decade ago. Apple’s campaign put the iMac at the center of a growing array of consumer devices like the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV. The late Apple co-founder and then-CEO Steve Jobs announced that strategy at MacWorld in 2001 as Apple’s vision of the future of the PC. Apple then opened its first retail stores, which sell its range of products from Macbook to iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. In Microsoft’s case, Webster said Microsoft’s retail partners such as Best Buy will also merchandise Microsoft products together, in step with the campaign. Holiday push Of the products featured in the holiday push, Windows Phone is considered the major underdog. Some handsets now available free with contract in a bid to goose sales, while sales of phones with Google’s Android operating system, as well as the iPhone, are accelerating. Windows has been similarly lagging, with revenue from the Windows and Windows Live division declining 1 percent for the fourth quarter and revenue for the full fiscal year ending in June decreasing 2 percent. But with the gesture-controller Kinect and internet service Xbox Live, Xbox is a best-seller and buoyed overall revenue up 12 percent from the year-prior to nearly $70 billion. Office 2010 also continues to break Microsoft Office sales records with more than 100 million licenses sold. — TJD, GMA News

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