Microsoft keeps up the Windows Phone 7 pressure with massive Times Square ad

March 2, 2011 | By Surur

We know the Windows Phone 7 marketing budget is large, and we love to see the company spend some of it. Above is some of that spending, with a massive Windows Phone 7 Really? ad in New York’s Time Square.

We look forward to seeing a lot more of this Microsoft!

Thanks Travis for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged ad, marketing, video, windows phone 7

WP7user

All of that and they didn't show any of the innovative UI?! MS snatches defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. Amazing

Mondai

Actually, the ads are very effective. REALLY? everytime I hear people say REALLY? All I could visual is Microsoft Windows Phone 7 ads.
"Where's the beef?" <—Wendy's
"Just do it!" <–Nike
“They’re G-r-r-r-eat!”<—-Frosted Flakes
to name a few.

Brian

Really? Because every time I hear someone say "Really?" all I can think of are the Saturday Night Live skits that made it popular. I seriously doubt at this point that there is any widespread association of Really and WP7 in the average consumers mind.

http://www.facebook.com/franz.cruz Franz Josef Cruz

Imagine Brandon Foy's commercial up in those big screens, with the music and the disco-esque theme…. would definitely capture more people's attention than that ad.
http://twitter.com/Bigsro @Bigsro

I think the ads are really good and well done.

Everyone needs to stop moaning about it. It gets boring. The fact that MS are pushing this in prime locations is good enough for me and personally I think the ads are great.

rsg

They don't show off any of the unique features the phone(s) have to offer.

I disagree.

flatbushe21

But my girl can't stop saying Really!

Brian

I second this. I personally don't have any problems with Microsofts advertising campaign. The "Really?" ads have been received with broad acclaim. They are not about showing off every tiny little feature that windows phone has that android doesn't. Most people Microsoft are appealing to are people who havn't bought smartphones yet. The message of the really ads is simple, clear and load and is explaining "why owning a windows phone will make you're life better". That's the first and formost message, associating owning a windows phone with happiness. You never or barely ever see mac donalds or coca cola trying to sell their products by explaining exactly why they taste better than pepsi or burger king. These companies broadly make ads that are 95% trying to simply saying you'll be happer if you drink coke or eat at mac donalds (adverising slogans: "open happiness"/"I'm lov'n it").____It's mostly the geekier croud who want to hear about features and what the phones actually do, and those ads are comming and we've seen a few already. And I don't beleive we're starting to see those ads because people have been bitching marketing advise to microsoft since launch, I would entirely beleive this whole marketing campaign has been pre meditated from the start to start off with a simple but powerful message of a smartphone that helps you "get back to life" and then slowly a start selling the individual features as those messages get absorbed by the market.____That's my two cents at least. I feel like they've been doing a good job at selling the phone to the kind of people they need to sell it to. They're selling a bit sluggishly right now evidently, but i fully expect they'll reach critical mass at some point this year or early next. The best marketing microsoft have right now (according to themselfs) is the fact that almost everyone who buys a windows phone falls in love with it and spreads the word. And sooner or later thats going to result in a healthy sales surge.

flatbushe21

Exactly. I couldn't have said this any better
http://www.facebook.com/wixostrix Edwin Michael Rodriguez-Duplesis

I completely agree. People act like Microsoft cant push a product when they want to. We've seen what they've done with Windows and Xbox. Zune doesn't count, because personally I don't think Microsoft ever wanted to make the devices a big hit, more so create a presence and build a content store for the future (now).

The "Really" campain is great. The first step is getting people to know about it. A few months ago, nobody knew anything about Windows Phone, now I hear people say all the time they want one or they think they are cool, regular people, not techies.

Appelflap

Don't forget they had a large amount of Windows Mobile users before Windows Phone was released…. WP7 is the sucessor of WM6.x

jabtano

Dear MS, what are you trying to do? When I want to do an add for my store. I show what we have what makes us special above the big chain supermarkets. I show the Product's that make us so unique. You guys are selling an OS show the dam thing and what it can do.it's almost as if you don't want to show it in action. wake up fire your add company and hire some of the folks who are making there own WP7 adds because they put your's to shame.
Peter

WOW, a WP7 advert!

Its a novel idea but it might work. i wonder if they will try it in other countries too? I have yet to see a single WP7 advert despite walking past literally hundreds of Blackberry ads and I phone ads every day.

rsg

Where do you live?

Peter

London

You should see Oxford circus station! its practically wallpapered with Blackberry ads!

The most galling one was the day Nokia and Microsoft announced their partnership. it actually got some pretty good coverage. a full page in the evening standard. but the opposite page was a full page advert for a Samsung Galaxy S!

I read on here a couple of days ago that the WP7 marketing team in the UK was congratulating itself for something (cant remember what it was) but you couldnt make it up!! its just a joke.
Software is great but the marketing is non-existant in the UK.

http://twitter.com/MistaWet @MistaWet

And that location is right next to a huge AT&T store. I went there to play with some devices myself. I don't think this add hurt the product. The commercial is a conversation piece. People see themselves in it and probably find it funny. Instead of having a flashing commercial (disco style) just like the rest of the million other lights going at the same time, the commercial makes sense by a moving story line in a sea of flashing lights.

Regardless if the showed the phone or not, the commercial does what it is intended to do which is be the funny Windows Phone commercial that people talk about.
TheBigM

What they really need to do is get those salesmen in phone shops to stop bagging the phones and aggressively pushing people towards androids. This phone is targeted and non-geeks who are going to listen to these salesmen. And adverts on "ordinary" tv too.

Ads like the above are expensive but no-one really pays attention to them.
wendy

they been doing this since launch last year.. also showing UI demo
William Hutchinson III

Ther " Really" need to put the more current as featuring the UI and the Samsung Focus up there! It has vibrant colors that will draw anyone it looking at it.
Just Visiting

This is super, and strategically placed where millions of folks travel on the daily. The ‘Really’ ads were memorable and served as an intro to the platform. It wasn't necessary to show all of the functionality of WP7 in 30 seconds; but to put something out there that people could relate to by showing different scenarios of people entrenched with their phones. The official ‘Really’ ad had over a million hits on YouTube, so yeah, it definitely got people’s attention. Microsoft progressed from the ‘Really’ ads to the Xbox live and the Airport commercial – both relatable.I think the new ad featuring the Focus was the next logical step – show a stylish phone, apps/features, and a voiceover to drive the message. The ads are effective enough to get the feature and smartphone users into the stores (or if they are consumers who like to make informed decisions, to hit the tech blogs and YouTube for reviews); sadly they may run into those sales people who will swiftly try steer them in the direction of another OS. I think that with the upcoming Nokia phones, the Nokia brand name will be a boost; coupled with a decent ad, the Nokia phones should fly off of the shelves.
djguapo

1-minute ad, with only the last 5 seconds actually showing the product.

Really, Microsoft, really?
ejlee2006

MSFT should show how the phone works.
Oh, I forgot they still haven't updated the os that's why they can't really show what the phones can do.
Just bought the droid x just in case MSFT won't update this month. I'm cancelling my hd7 from TMOBILE if I don't see any updates, I want to forward emails, I want to send my videos ,,, I dont care about copy n paste
Appelflap

I thought about it a bit more. Maybe it is a good campaign. Not because of the in and out crap per se, but because it looks like a totally different but better product than the direct competitors (android and iPhone). It can be used to differentiate the product for an introduction. The competition is about obsession and WP7 is about the real life. But in the end WP7 is of course a "obsession" phone like any other.

Btw I am totally in my wp7 phone and obsessed with it because I can't manage to get it working with my state of the art BT car kit… I mean, Really? LoL
(with android it was a breeze. Was in and out to get it working )

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