Why the New Microsoft Ad Is Actually Brilliant

Silicon Valley insiders and the early adopter crowd seem to hate the new Microsoft ad. So maybe it’s on target.

So Microsoft debuted its long-anticipated, $300 million marketing campaign today. And the initial reviews — at least from the tech and early adopter gang — aren’t all that kind.

VentureBeat sniffs that the campaign opener, a quirky 90-seconds of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft founder Bill Gates talking shoes and technology, is “awkwardly odd” and really not very good. The First Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Ad Makes No Sense moans Gizmodo. Conversation on Twitter is almost uniformly negative.

There’s no denying the ad is, at first, a bit puzzling. Perhaps people were expecting something a bit slicker from the folks at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, the überhip agency hired to rescue Microsoft from a decade of marketing cruft and miscues. Watch the video above and see for yourself.

It’s an ad about nothing

Sound familiar? That’s how Jerry Seinfeld used to describe his show, co-created with Larry David. Seinfeld really stuck out as a network series back in the Nineties, and the new ad nails the same vibe. Not a bad idea, given that consumers have become nearly impervious to traditional marketing. We’re all pretty good at tuning out a pitch, but the new ad doesn’t come off that way.

“They’re not selling anything!”

Over on Friendfeed, where I sprend too much time these days, a lot of the conversation faults the Seinfeld and Gates Show for failing to get Mac users back to the PC, or explain why Windows is cool. I imagine Microsoft’s marketers used to be similarly puzzled by Apple’s unconventional advertising. Microsoft Windows honcho Bill Veghte told CNET earlier this summer that the new campaign would be presenting “a bunch of stuff,” which presumably will be trotted out in the coming months. But that’s not what this first ad is designed to do.

Why the campaign rollout works

The campaign debut isn’t about selling Windows, trying to out-irony Apple, or reversing the fact that Microsoft’s strongest current marketing image is the strangely lovable PC Guy in those Mac spots . It has one purpose: to brand Jerry Seinfeld as the new face of Microsoft.

Mission accomplished. I can’t imagine a surer way of binding Seinfeld to Microsoft than his goofy extended eye lock with Bill Gates as they try on shoes, or coaxing a very un-corporate hip sway from the former Chairman as they walk off camera together. It’s the first glimpse of a warmer, less up-tight Microsoft. A company you might even — yes, it’s unthinkable — like.

Microsoft has written a pretty hefty check in the hope that Seinfeld can put a smile on their core customers’ faces. They’ve opened with a bit of a soft shoe routine. The real dance is yet to come.