• by Christine Champagne , May 29, 2007

Microsoft tries its hand at selling the virtues of Vista to the under-30 crowd

Microsoft faces many challenges in marketing its Windows Vista operating system to young people. Perhaps the biggest obstacle: Microsoft isn't known for its cool factor.

But the company's hoping to change that perception with a new effort, known as "Clearification."

For the initiative, McCann Worldgroup, San Francisco, launched the Web site Clearification.com, which features a series of quirky Webisodes starring Demetri Martin of "The Daily Show." In the series, Martin seeks to bring clarity to his cluttered life with the help of scientists from the Institute for Advanced Personhood, who study and unlock human potential.

Tommy Means, founder of San Francisco-based Mekanism, directed the Webisodes, which he co-wrote with Martin. The brief consisted of a single word - clarity.

"Clarity is the brand promise of the new Windows Vista operating system. The OS has been designed to simplify the user's digital ecosystem," Means explains. "So we decided to write a narrative about Demetri Martin, a guy who sets out to simplify his life."

The process was dubbed "clearification." "It's a word we made up because people might remember it - and it was the only URL available," Means quips.

In addition to commissioning the site, Microsoft co-sponsored Martin's comedy tour, which played cities with big college populations. Each venue sported promotional signage and the comedian wove Windows Vista into his show, using a PC running the operating system as part of his act. Additionally, Microsoft sponsored Martin's special on Comedy Central, during which Means-directed commercials for Clearification.com were shown. The spots feature Dr. Woodrow Lovett, one of the main characters from the Webisodes on Clearification.com.

"This audience is highly vocal and very skeptical," Means says, "and the goal was to create positive anticipation amongst this crowd for Windows Vista in an entertaining way: essentially 'softening the beachhead' for the product launch."

"It was a hugely different approach, especially for the Windows group," says Brian Marr, the group marketing manager at Microsoft who oversaw the creation and execution of Clearification.com. (He has since left the company to join marketing agency The Wexley School for Girls in Seattle as managing director.) "But the goal was to connect with a group of customers that maybe weren't paying attention to us, or maybe weren't thinking favorably about the company."

Clearification.com is light on branding - actually, it's almost nonexistent. Aside from a notation on the lower left-hand corner of the screen that states the site was presented by Windows Vista, and from visible PCs running Windows Vista in the Webisodes, the content does not overtly plug the product. The focus is on Martin's journey to find clarity. "We opted more for entertainment than branding to the point where I think it scared a lot of traditional marketers," Marr says. "But it allowed us to really tell a great story, and the story was actually a metaphor for Windows Vista, which brings clarity to your world."

Marr reports that visits to the site reached "the millions."

The Geek Factor

Clearification.com is a departure for Microsoft, according to Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "I haven't seen them do anything quite like this before," Calkins says. "It's much more irreverent, if you will, than what they've usually done."

Inevitably, one can't help but wonder whether Microsoft's approach was inspired by Apple's humorous TV campaign featuring actors representing a Mac and pc - including Martin's "Daily Show" colleague John Hodgman, a.k.a. "PC Guy." "Oh, there's no question," Calkins says. "There's no question that people at Microsoft have to be incredibly frustrated with Apple right now. The work that Apple is doing, especially on TV, with the Microsoft character and the Apple character, has to just grate on Microsoft something awful. So I think this is certainly an effort to try to make Microsoft a little more cool and less of the corporate geek."

Microsoft's decision to hook up with Martin bodes well for the company's bid for coolness, says Samantha Skey, senior vice president for strategic marketing of New York's Alloy Media + Marketing, providers of nontraditional targeted media and promotional marketing programs aimed at the under-30 "millennial" crowd. "Choosing Demetri Martin is smart in that you're going for a character that just inherently is going to identify you as fairly cool with young adults, because he doesn't have mass appeal yet," Skey maintains, adding, "This mouthpiece was chosen really carefully, clearly, with the millennial audience in mind."

But Jack Trout, president of Greenwich, Conn.-based strategic marketing firm Trout & Partners, says that Martin's famously low-key act falls flat here, and Clearification.com doesn't offer enough of a connection to Windows Vista. "This is not soft sell. This is no sell," Trout complains. "It's part of this whole genre of stuff you're seeing out there - We've got to be cool. We can't sell. This young crowd doesn't like to be sold to, so we won't sell to them. We'll have no sell. So I say, why waste your time and money? What's the purpose?"

Kellogg's Calkins also wonders if the focus on entertainment might have gone a bit too far. "To me, the risk is that [the content] is so disconnected from the product that you are just left completely puzzled about what exactly is going on and how Microsoft fits into the whole puzzle," Calkins says.

The Brand Image

At the same time, he also can see the value in a site focused on improving Microsoft's image. "Microsoft as a brand is very powerful, and some people like it, and many people don't. So there's no question Microsoft has to be working on its brand image to make sure it's a company people do have positive associations with, and young people are incredibly important. You can see the intent here," Calkins muses, "and I think it really is more about branding than it is direct product sales."

As for the strategy for driving for traffic to the site? Could Microsoft have benefited from making more of an effort to spread the word about Clearification.com, rather than pursue an underground approach? Skey thinks so, pointing out that Microsoft could have promoted the site hard on college campuses. "You can really dig deep on campus, even going into dorms," Skey says, "hitting students with a suggestive message that's non-intrusive, but has quirky or irreverent suggestions that clearification is what they need. With the added benefit of Demetri Martin as a brand [icon], I think it wouldn't have been difficult to drive quite a lot of traffic."

Overall, though, Skey believes that Microsoft achieved what it set out to do with Clearification.com - foster some positive perceptions among the members of a valuable young demographic. "This is a great subtle movement. It's not heavy-handed. It's restrained from a brand perspective, and it shows a lot of thought and effort in meeting younger people within a context that's relevant to them. I think that would be appreciated," Skey says, noting, "That would be considered cool."