Microsoft are under pressure. Basically they found themselves the leaders, in the wrong market - PC's - and having a dominant position didn't help as PC sales tumbled. So they've tried to re-invent themselves without a product innovator (a Gates or a Jobs) at the helm and rather have the most peculiar salesman, Crazy Steve Ballmer, instead.
Search him on this blog and you'll see the videos and you'll see what I mean. Enough said.
Their foray into Windows 8 recently doesn't seem exactly to have set the world on fire and their 'Surface Tablet' has contributed to strong revenue in the last quarter to December no doubt. But what of the future and where they're going?
They plead for their relevance today by promoting their past. In other words, use nostalgia.
"We're the brand that's always been here", "We're the brand of establishment, of trust", Remember us? That kinda' thing and in that way, hope to jolt happy memories from former Microsoft users (which we all were) into thinking, you know what...they were there at the start for me. Aaaahh.
But it will work too. The commercial is nice and clean with viral potential as we all do a "do ya remember that!" and pass it onto our friends.
It's very brand rather than substance and targets children of the 90's. The endline, "you grew up...so did we" is a direct plea.
The final copyline "Reconnect with the new Internet Explorer" establishes trust around a thing we all knew - IE.
What it will do is to help 'trial' and get people to take another fond look at Microsoft but that has to be followed by substance - by relevant, useful product. And that's the problem.
Advertising can get people to try a product again, but only once. The worry is, that it's exactly because Microsoft has nothing to say, that they chose this route. When you've nothing say, talk about past glories.
And they'll be found out.
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