1. Microsoft Office 2010 – Brazil’s launching campaign
Gustavo Donda & Don Valdez
Advanced Social Media Marketing - NYU
Business Situation
Microsoft Office 2010
Research data shows that most of the consumers use less than 30% of the
features available on their current versions of Microsoft Office. Moreover,
convincing them to upgrade to a newerversion with even more featuresisn’t an
easy task. Despite this situation, initially, Microsoft chose to pursue the classic
approach of spreading awareness about the new software features. This was a
natural tendency of an engineering-oriented company like Microsoft. It proved
challenging to convince them that a different approach was required; turning it
to the consumers’ point-of-view was an innovation hard to implement.
Social Media
The Internet has been a key-platform for the software industry with most of the
brands focusing their product launching on this medium. However, with the
decreasing performance of display ads, most of the digital marketing efforts have
been migrating to the social media arena.Despite being the industry leader,
Microsoftdid not achieve good results from its social media experiences so far.
Very well produced web videos were uploaded on YouTube for the US launchof
new Office in late 2009 but they weren’t getting more than tens of views. This
situation overwhelmed the marketing team in charge of this launch with
frustration anduncertainty. Prioritizing social media was still a strategic
guideline, but at the time that the launching wave should have started in Brazil,
in November 2009, the marketing and product teams had no successful
benchmarks to lie on and didn’t know what to do to launch the new Office 2010
in the local market.
Marketing goals
Even thought the starting date of the launching campaign was November 2009,
the product would be available only on March 2010. However, achieving at least
100,000 downloads of the free beta version available on the Office’s website in
this 4 month period was key for successful in product acceptance.
Questions
Considering the recent fails in social media initiatives in US, should the Brazilian
team have pursued a campaign based on social media strategies?Should they
avoid using web videos?What they could do different than their American
counterparts?
Insight
After carefully studying the marketing problem, the team concluded that the
downsides of the US launch weren’t related to the tactics chosen, but to the
branding approach.

2. The brand image built by Microsoft up to that time was business and corporate.
In more recent years, several efforts had been undertaken to position the brand
closer to the consumer, but to take effect for the Office 2010 launching, a more
radical movement was needed.
As result, two core-messages that opposed the current perception of the brand
were elected for the campaign:
- Open source: opposing the idea that Microsoft is closed to the “hype-geek-
hacking” community
- Creativity enabler: opposing the engineering-oriented feature approach
Social Media Strategy
1. Create original content: 3 creative programmers were recruited to be
locked in a house for a month and create fun technology using raw
electronics, gadgets and Office software. Under the theme “Bring ideas to
life”, they mixed art and technology, sometimes inviting musicians, graffiti
artists and VJs.
2. Delivery in a powerful engaging format: the experiences were
documented in 4 videos (one for each Office software: Excel, PowerPoint,
Word and Outlook) that were central pieces of the platform and
responsible for the first ripple of the campaign
3. Connect different social media websites: guarantee that the conversation
was continuous through different networks
4. Start and take part in conversations: discussions around the creations, the
programmers, challenges propositions, “How-To” sessions, provide free
pieces of code, etc.
5. Identify and engage with top influencers: PR communications and
eventsfollowed each new video launched
6. Leverage word-of-mouth: using very target display ad through ad
networks to bring new audiences to the buzz
7. Make sure that all activities were integrated to the campaign goal: post
the campaign website link (where beta version could be downloaded) in
every profile bio used as well as part of the conversations
The results
200,000 downloads mark was reached in January 2010, two months before the
target date.
Exhibits
Ska music + Excel video: http://youtu.be/wrxCDK_avvY
Graffiti + Powerpoint video: http://youtu.be/6gLkf2k94HQ