Lady Geek

Belinda Parmar

Is it OK to be sick of Apple? I know we are all supposed to admire for their chic industrial-design and oh-so tasteful advertising. One reason Apple stand out so boldly from their competition is that most technology is advertised so badly which is why I instantly take-note when some other tech company manages to churn out a good campaign: Take Microsoft's People Ready campaign. It's a real improvement from the company which previously gave us the comic duo of Gates & Seinfeld.

This innovative ad is intended to promote Microsoft's extensive range of business products - a line that is increasingly under threat from commercial and free rivals. Given that there's a free alternative to just about every one of Microsoft's commercial products it makes sense that they talk more about the solutions to which their products can be put to rather than fussing about the products themselves. This reminds me of how IBM's marketing had to transform over the 90's: Like Microsoft today IBM realized that they were loosing their monopoly - they could no longer be profitable simply by selling shrink-wrapped software products.

 Even if it's not immediately clear what exactly what product or service Microsoft are advertising here, the campaign positions Microsoft as an enabler behind some of the world's most interesting companies. It has a kind of silicon-valley start-up energy, and it's not at all the sort of thing I'd expect to see from a gargantuan megacorp. Having worked for some of the world's largest IT companies, I've noticed a trend towards ultra-conservative advertising: It usually starts with risk-averse brand-managers but is compounded by agency staff who do not understand the products or are simply not interested in all that "techie" stuff. It's no surprise that there are so few award-winning IT business ads.

There's a widely-held belief that b2b advertising has to be corporate and dull in order to work. Complete and utter nonsense. Business people are also 'normal' people with a creative side and a sense of humour. They do not leave their 'souls' at the office door when they enter the corporate world. A great advert like this can only come-about about when a confident brand-manager has the courage to let their agency work outside the shackles of convention. They have to really want to stand out, something that most IT people seem to find hard to do.

It's great to see Microsoft acting as an equal in the playground. Its about time they stopped looking up at Apple and started acting as a leader they really are.