It looks like the haunting and very successful Gears of War ad that featured Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World” propelled the 2001 song into the number one spot in the iTunes music store, at least temporarily. Joystiq reports, via Gearheads of War, that yesterday, “Mad World” was #1 at iTMS, despite no significant recent promotion of the song, save for the ad.
Two things to take from this: The Gears of War ad has to be on some lists for the top ads of the year, at least in some category. Also, the power of video games as an entertainment medium is just amazing. One of these days, a game is going to release a Billboard #1 soundtrack (although it won’t be a hardcore game). Someone needs to find a way to design a breakaway non-hardcore game hit, an “American Pie” for the games industry, that can be popular with all sorts of teenagers, and sell a lot of soundtracks, besides moving a few million units.
So, was it a good idea? Well, Amazon banked $100,000 on $300,000 of inventory (not counting profit margins). It got coverage all over the internet that was certainly worth more than $200,000 in marketing expenses. However, It lose fifteen minutes of sales, and probably took a decent hit to the bandwidth bills. Amazon has yearly revenue of eight and a half billion dollars, or 23 1/4 million a day, or $970,000 an hour, or $242,000 every fifteen minutes. So, in those fifteen minutes, they lost close to half a million dollars in revenue. Still, that could be made up in all the publicity.
Greg Linden, who designed a lot of the tech that powers Amazon, says this:
Sounds familiar. When I was at Amazon, every year we in engineering would try to avoid spikes in traffic, especially around peak holiday loads, and every year marketing folks would want to run some promotion specifically designed to create a mad frenzy on the site. Usually, we convinced them to change the promotion, but apparently engineering lost (or was asleep at the switch) this year.
If you aren’t sick of it, this week’s deal looks to be a $25 portable DVD player.
So, what the hell is going on? Microsoft is doing a great job in the search pace, creating a search UI that I’m a vocal fan of. What are they doing wrong? This is a long-term battle, but one would expect them to be holding their ground, or showing the same small gains Ask.com is making.
Theories:
Change is bad: Users don’t like two redesigns in two years, and the unfamiliarity is sending them away.
Windows Live Search looks cheap: The old MSN search looked cheap. It was too white, too sparse. The layout and colors didn’t have the right “feel”, seeming like a low rent search engine, rather than a serious competitor to Google. While Google shares many of the same properties, users know it is the search leader, and are willing to overlook its design. MSN doesn’t get the same pass. While the newer MSN Search and now Live.com improved the look and feel, they retain some sort of cheapness. Personally, I think its the white and blue. Something dramatic and dynamic to make the page more exciting. Ask.com has it (the red bar) Yahoo has some of it (the red Yahoo logo, plus they rip off Google well). Perhaps Widncows Live needs a new color on the page, or an animated element. Anything to break it up. A suggestion: Animate the flair on page load.
Lack of marketing: Most people don’t know Windows Live Search exists. Microsoft is counting on (a) community evangelism (and besides myself and some other bloggers, I’m not sure there is much of that), as well as (b) MSN and Internet Explorer users discovering the search engine in random use. For god sakes, buy some good commercials, ones people can’t ignore, something undeniably cool and memorable. Also: Say Live.com in your ads, leave out Microsoft, and I guarantee they become more effective.
Beta feel: Regardless of how popular Gmail invites used to be, the average user hates betas, and will not use products that appear under construction. Windows Live has so many products that don’t work, don’t work all the time, are behind invite-only walls, or have a beta tag, that users instinctively say “I’ll wait for when its done”. Focus on core products (Live.com, search, image search, news search, Live Mail) and demand a full release by the day Windows Vista hits retail. If you have to, stop designing new features and stabilize the damn code. I don’t care how good the product will be, because your users are leaving now.
God, that’s some harsh language. I feel bad, because I have a geek crush on Windows Live, and firmly believe they are tops in this industry in many categories. I want them to win, and your best critics will always be your biggest fans. For god sakes, guys, don’t blow this! You can gain market share, if you just get the basics right: Looks, personality, gossip and maturity. Take those four words and put them on the door of every Windows Live team member’s office, and don’t them down until Windows Live can claim it meets the basic goals.
