The company believes that competitors Apple and Google overpaid for their own mobile ad acquisitions, so they are not willing to go that same route. Google paid about $750 million for AdMob, while Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless was for an undisclosed sum — although likely in that same neighborhood.

I’m not so sure that buying a mobile ad company is in the best interest of RIM at this point. The company really doesn’t have the money to be playing cat and mouse in the acquisition market with its obviously bigger rivals. And it’s own install base is shrinking as consumers increasingly turn to the Android and iOS platforms.

Shouldn’t RIM be focused on turning the BlackBerry around rather than selling ads on your phone? I think the answer there is pretty easy.

Here’s the text from the above ad:

This epic struggle explains why we make what we make and do what we do. The thing that gets us out of bed every day is the prospect of creating pathways above, around and through walls. To start a dialogue between hundreds of devices, billions of people and a world of ideas. To lift up the smallest of us. And catapult the most audacious of us. But, most importantly, to connect all of us to the four corners of our own digital lives and to each other. To go on doing the little stuff, the big stuff, the crazy stuff and that ridiculously necessary stuff. On our own or together. This is more than software we’re talking about, it’s an approach to life. An approach dedicated to engineering the absence of anything that might stand in the way…of life. Today, more than one billion people worldwide have Windows. Which is just another way of saying we have each other.

Here’s another ad:

Here’s the teensy text from this one:

This is gonna be fun. The walls between devices are giving way to Windows. Phones understand PCs. PCs understand TVs. And a whole family of devices connect your work to your personal life and connect you to over a billion other Windows users around the globe. Defying inertia. Kind of gives you goose bumps, doesn’t it?

And here are some ads–really nice-looking, billboard-like ones–that continue the theme through pure imagery:

Some thoughts on the major ideas which come up in these ads, and whether they add up to a fresh take on Windows:

More than a billion people around the world are connected through Windows. That fact has also come up in the TV ads. (Jerry Seinfeld thoughtfully pointed it out to Bill Gates in the conclusion of the second spot.) I think one of the messages behind the campaign is that Windows is the opposite of the exclusive club that the Mac represents: It’s everywhere, and used by folks of all types (even “the smallest of us”). Very true.

But these ads say that the fact there are a billions Windows users “is just another way of saying we have each other”–creepy!–and otherwise suggest that there’s some beneficial network effect to using Windows. What that would be, I’m not sure–one of the fabulous things about the Internet is that it runs on standards and it really doesn’t matter whether you and I are using the same operating system and applications. Windows users aren’t locked into using Internet Explorer or Windows Live services–and thank heavens for that.

Windows lets PCs, phones, and TVs talk to each other. Yup, it’s available in various forms for all three types of devices. But if there’s inherent benefit in that fact, I haven’t discovered it–I’ve spent endless hours wrestling with Microsoft’s ActiveSync over the years, trying to make it properly connect Windows desktop PCs with Windows Mobile phones. And DataViz’s Documents to Go is famous for doing a better job of putting Microsoft Office documents onto phones than Microsoft does itself. PlaysForSure, which was supposed to make Windows talk to an array of MP3 players, was such a fiasco that Microsoft disowned it in favor of the iPod-like Zune.

There may be instances in which Microsoft platforms talk to each other as seamlessly as the ads suggest–Windows Media Center Extenders seem to do a pretty good job of putting the Media Center experience onto multiple TVs–but it’s hardly a given.

And really, the notion of life being better if I run Windows everywhere doesn’t sound like breaking down walls–it sounds like preserving them. (Not just a Microsoft thing, of course: It’s equally true of Apple’s walled-garden iTunes ecosystem.)

Windows defies inertia, because of Microsoft’s dedication to engineering the absence of anything that might stand in the way of life. One of the major issues with Microsoft products is that they tend to introduce inertia, in the form of security hassles, troubleshooting issues, unreliable copy protection, and upgrades that require relearning without clear benefit. When folks ask me what the arguments are for choosing a Mac over a Windows PC, I tell them that the biggest one is simply that they’ll likely spend less time futzing and more time getting stuff done.

Windows provides choice of devices. In many ways, this is the single strongest argument for using Windows rather than other operating systems: It’s available on all sorts of devices from all sorts of companies, providing something for almost everybody. Apple, by contrast, provides only a handful of computers and a grand total of one phone (admittedly, a grand total of one phone that may be the best phone on the market). But the ads are pretty understated on this point. One of them does talk about “hundreds of devices,” and one shows a couple of phones, and all of the ones that show PCs, phones, and TVs display the logos of famous manufacturers, which is a subtle reminder that the world of Windows provides lots of options.

Windows helps ordinary people do great things. I think I may be alone here, since I rarely see anyone else comment on this, but there’s a patronizing undercurrent in much of Microsoft’s ads that really rankles me as a consumer, and there’s a hint of it here. I’m not sure who the “smallest of us” is that Windows lifts up, and I’m pretty sure that the most audacious of us don’t need to be catapulted by Windows. But the new ads don’t contain the overwhelming sense of Microsoft looking down on its customers that stuff like “Your potential. Our passion.” does, so I’ll give the company a pass here. (Side note: Bill Gates is indeed doing extraordinary work to lift up people all over the world, but the only direct contribution that Windows is making is in the form of profits.)

Windows is about software running on hardware. Yes, one of the ads says “This is more than software we’re talking about,” and there are vague references to being connected. But I’m surprised that the ads don’t have much to say about Windows in the form of the Windows Live Web services. (Two of the ads mention Windows in “Live” form as well as “PC” and “Mobile,” which would seem to suggest that Microsoft thinks that Windows Live is known by and resonates with ordinary folks; if I’d been the copywriter, I would said “Web” instead of “Live.”) I almost wonder if Microsoft is conceding that Windows Live in its current form is simply not compelling enough to be at the center of these ads. But perhaps there are more ads in the wings that are more Webby.

Windows is not synonymous with Vista. None of the ads mention Vista by name. A Microsoft-basher might latch onto that fact as indication that Microsoft is embarrassed by the OS. Naw–the company is obviously being truthful when it says that it’s promoting the overarching concept of Windows in all its forms, not a particular version. It’s entirely possible we’ll see more Vista-specific ads before it’s burned through all $300 million of ad spending.

Oh, and that “Windows: Life Without Walls” slogan? It’s subtly different from the rumored “Windows, Not Walls” tagline that had been rumored, and which sounded more like it was saying that Windows competitors involved walls. I wouldn’t read too much into the version that’s in these ads–I think it’s just playing off the idea that walls are limiting and windows provide transparency. When you think of it, it’s the same pitch that Microsoft has made for its products for years–a new way of saying “Where do you want to go today?” Although come to think of it, looking through windows is a somewhat passive metaphor…is it too late to rebrand the operating system as “Microsoft Doors?”

Whew. I’ve just spent far more words analyzing those ads than appear in the ads themselves. Bottom line: I’m glad that the print ads are at least trying to make an argument for Windows based on specific facts…but I’d be much happier if Windows lived up to the argument they’re making.

Any additional thoughts?

]]> http://technologizer.com/2008/09/19/windows-life-without-walls-campaign-the-print-ads/feed/ 23 Harry McCracken lifewithoutwalls windowsnotwallssmall windowswallsrollersmall windowswallsbig windowswallsbug windowswallsboxer1 windowswallspenguins windowswallsmarlin windowswallsplane http://technologizer.com/2008/09/11/random-thoughts-about-the-second-gatesseinfeld-windows-ad/ http://technologizer.com/2008/09/11/random-thoughts-about-the-second-gatesseinfeld-windows-ad/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:53:34 +0000 Harry McCracken http://technologizer.wordpress.com/?p=1826 ]]> I swear that I’m going to stop writing about these Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft ads soon. Or at least I hope so. The second ad in the series has aired, and not only is it even more dramatically odd than the first one–it also feels like it’s about seventy-five minutes long:

A few quick thoughts on it:

–the ad seems to say quite explicitly that Bill Gates is an enormously wealthy man who has trouble bonding with normal folks. It’s at least superficially in jest, but I can’t quite tell if there’s an implicit acknowledgment there that Microsoft’s reputation among its customers could be a lot better.

–quirky though the spot may be, it feels like it has a touch of the patronizing “Your Potential. Our Passion” tone that I associate with Microsoft advertising. It’s full of little people! With hopes and dreams just like yours and mine! Who are honored by a visit from the founder of Microsoft!

–Like the first ad, this one segues into a slightly harder sell at the end: Jerry helpfully reminds Bill that the latter has “connected over a billion people,” presumably to get TV watchers thinking positive thoughts about Microsoft’s place in the world. Kinda odd to make it that personal, though–does that mean that when my PC bluescreens, I should hold Bill personally responsible?

–At the end of the commercial, the phrase “Perpetually Connecting” turns into the abbreviation “PC.” I can’t think of another ad in recent Microsoft history that’s made reference to Windows-based computers as PCs–it feels like an almost direct response to Apple’s Get a Mac ads and their Mac and PC characters. I wonder if future ads will also call PCs PCs. (Actually, I hope not: I used to be a stickler for the notion that all personal computers, including Macs, are PCs; I’ve sort of given up, though.)

–When word broke that the $300 million Windows ad campaign would star Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, everybody and their brother (including, well, me) squawked that Microsoft was showing it was out of touch by signing an aging comedian whose glory days were more than a decade ago. After watching this ad, it looks like maybe it was all intentional–Bill and Jerry are proudly, aggressively middle-aged and unhip in this spot.

Over at All About Microsoft, Mary Jo Foley has some more thoughts and facts about the ad. She says an ad that’s more traditionally about Windows will be along shortly. One can only hope…