Microsoft Office’s “Dinosaur” Campaign Stuck In The Stone Age
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of “Guy With No Advertising Experience Rewrites a Microsoft Ad Campaign”. You can play along from home. The way the game works is that you see an ad campaign that really just doesn’t work and fix it all by your lonesome. Your tools are common sense and the word “d’uh!”, and you cannot use a focus group. All ad professionals are automatically disqualified.
This week, we’ll be looking at Microsoft’s “Evolve” campaign, encouraging users of Office 97 and 2000 to upgrade to Office 2003. The campaign involves a website with a tedious flash intro (featuring a dinosaur that resembles at times a part of the male anatomy), a print campaign (again with dinosaurs), and dinosaurs standing around in the street handing out copies of the Wall Street Journal (with the ad inside and teased on the cover).
The issue is: While this campaign may be mildly amusing, it doesn’t seem of the kind to actually grab people. It doesn’t straight out say: “The old Office blows, the new Office is much better, upgrade!” When you are telling someone to move from one product to another, you need to offer a comparison of the two.
Here’s my entry (centered around a commercial, with the print ads and the website all running with the same theme):
- A stupid-looking guy is driving a go-cart through the streets of a major city, looking just plain crazy, avoiding the big cars threatening to run him over at any moment. A stylish, sexy sports car (or alternatively, a big powerful Hummer or monster truck) pulls up next to him, with a much cooler guy driving. The guy in the cool car looks at the go-cart guy, gets a confused look on his face, and drives off.
Still using an eight-year old version of Office?
Maybe it’s time to upgrade.
Microsoft Office 2003
Better, faster, and newer
upgrades start at $239
Now its your turn to play. Can you beat Microsoft’s ad campaign?
(via Steve Rubel)
My advertisement would be of a software developer creating a compelling application that takes advantage of the new features in the 2003 version.
Comment by KB | March 15, 2005
Looks like they have adopted ideas from the Microsoft Bob product. Should’ve known not to take ideas from a failed product and use them again.
Comment by Nirav Patel | March 15, 2005
Uh…dinosaurs and the Stone Age? I think you’re mixing your eras.
Comment by Alex | March 18, 2005
Sure, I could have called it “Microsoft Office’s ‘Dinosaur’ Campaign Stuck In The Jurassic Period”, but it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. Plus, in the newspaper world, you go with the simplest, quickest-witted headline. More often than not, I’m told that the headline that gets the reader into the story is more important than the headline that is technically correct. Its not a great rule to live by, but then again, the newspaper business has never been all that smart.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | March 20, 2005
[…] See, this actually works. Naturally, and possibly because of that, it isn’t going to be part of a mulit-million dollar ad campaign or even a massive viral one, because Microsoft hates ads that people actually like. As Todd Bishop points out, “The company often shows elaborate, humorous videos at industry events and its major internal meetings, but they rarely get shown more widely”. Consider the “success” of the Office “dinosaur” campaign, maybe it’s time to try a different tack. […]
Pingback by » Actual Good Marketing From Microsoft InsideMicrosoft - part of the Blog News Channel | August 21, 2005
A blonde woman goes to the doctor and complains that her whole body is aching. She touches her knee and says: “Ouch! That hurt”. She then touches her elbow which evokes yet another painful response. She then touches her ear and complains that it is sensitive too. The doctor then examines her and says: “Well, Madam, I am sure that will be the case - your finger is broken.”
[Note from Nathan: This was a spam comment, but I liked the joke, so I cut out all the links. Enjoy!]
Comment by Anonymous | March 8, 2006