In order to stop or reverse the continuing erosion of Internet browser market share Microsoft is launching it’s revamped browser IE8 (replete with lots of new bells and whistles) with great fanfare. Firefox continues to gain followers, Google is pushing Chrome very hard and the popularity of Apple products will ensure that a small but loyal group will continue to browse the web with Safari. Microsoft is doing it’s best to maintain a 70% market share (down from over 90% a few years ago). While any Microsoft marketing activity can be dismissed as just another dip into their bottomless reserve of cash it is still instructive to look at how they are spending their promotional dollars. This time around they are spending money on video – lots of it.
Microsoft has hired or licensed some know and lesser known comedians and Internet celebrities (i.e. Obama girl and Ask a Ninja) to help create some rather engaging content and also to promote some of the new features of IE8 in a series of videos called ‘The history of the Internet”. It’s well done and worth a look. Interestingly you had to install Silverlight (Microsoft’s competing product to Adobe Flash) to view the videos. I couldn’t find the these videos on YouTube so presumably Microsoft is controlling distribution to encourage people to install Silverlight. I’m not sure this is the best way to encourage the viral spread of a video but I’m sure they know what they are doing…
Aside from the 25 half minute humour clips they have assembled to promote IE8 virally they have also created the following 15 separate marketing videos:
- A 30 second commercial that plays on the homepage of the IE8 Site (This video offers the least value of any of the video’s – no one wants to watch a commercial on the web… unless it’s really engaging.)
- An overview video that summarizes the features and benefits of the new browser.
- 5 separate videos that explain the detail of each of the 5 major features.
- 3 scenario videos that demonstrate popular use-cases for where the new browser features will be used.
- 4 Partner videos that show how selected Microsoft partners are benefiting from the new features.
- A detailed ‘case study’ that details in an interesting comparative format how the new browser is as fast or faster than that of it’s competitors – trying to quell one of the big knocks against the old browser.
This is a smart way to develop video – short form targeted video that highlights a specific idea (feature and/or benefit) to a specific audience. Creating one 30 minute video would have guaranteed that no one watched it. The cost of creating 15 small videos is not that much more than the traditional cost of creating a 30 minute video. Microsoft is obviously committed to using video and sees it as one of the most effective ways of communicating with its online audience.
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