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Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft launches Windows 7 ad campaign, and it's sickeningly sweet



Sex sells. You knew that. But you know what else sells? Cute. And that's the approach Microsoft is taking with its first ad for Windows 7.

Microsoft has been putting out high profile ads for the last year or so, promoting PCs and briefly Jerry Seinfeld. But for the most part these ads have been based on image and haven't really mentioned Microosft's core products: it's operating system.

The latest ad features Kylie, a little girl who we earlier learned was a PC. This time she has put together a slide show displaying some of the nice, happy words that people have said on the internet about Windows 7 along with happy pictures of ridiculously cute things like a bunny wearing a hat.

Of course, the ad still doesn't really tell us much of anything about the actual product. But you know what? Sometimes the best ads don't. If you want to know about Windows 7's security features, new taskbar, improved media center functions, or other tidbits, you just have to hop online and look them up. This is the kind of ad that's supposed to make you feel good about the product, not teach you about it.

You can check out Kylie's first ad for Microsoft after the break. The funny thing is that at the time it was launched, Kylie's "I'm a PC" video was one of the few in the series that actually showed some of the things you can do with a PC, and implied it was so easy a 4 and a half year old girl could do it. I'm not quite as convinced that she could really have put together the slideshow above on her own... or have chosen the music.

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Filed under: Microsoft

Life Comes Together: The Windows ad campaign that wasn't

Microsoft has garnered a lot of attention, much of it positive, for its recent ad campaigns. While a lot of people were left scratching their heads when the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates ads started hitting the airwaves, Microsoft's "I'm a PC" and "Laptop Hunters" commercials have hit a chord, showing both that everyday people use PCs, and that there are a lot of choices for computer shoppers in a variety of price ranges.

But what about the ads that didn't make the cut? Blogger Long Zheng spotted a series of Microsoft/Windows ads in the Vimeo account of John McNeil, former creative director of McCann Worldgroup. The ad agency didn't get the Windows campaign, but judging from this series of 9 commercials, it's not for the lack of trying.

Like the commercial Microsoft eventually went with, these "Life Comes Together" themed ads don't really focus on the features of Windows software very much. But most do hint at one or two features that Windows or other Microsoft products have that help them fit into your daily life. You can check out of the rest of the videos at istartedsomething.

What do you think of the ads? Did Microsoft make the right call in passing up on these and going with its current campaign? Or would you rather have seen these ads on the air?

Filed under: Internet, Video, Google

YouTube adds overlay ads, TubeStop stops them

YouTube overlay ads
YouTube this week began placing video advertisements inside of... videos. Here's how it works. You're watching a movie, and then about 15 seconds in, a little banner ad shows up in the window. Sort of like when you're watching network TV and a silly icon shows up at the bottom of the screen telling you to stay tuned for the next show.

But this is the internet, so everything's interactive. Clicking on the ad pauses the video you're watching and brings up a commercial. Because that's what you really went to YouTube for in the first place. To watch commercials. Actually, that might be true. Those Japanese commercials are almost as wacky as the game shows.

Anyway, if you're satisfied with the level of distraction offered by YouTube, it turns out there's a pretty simple way to prevent the ads from popping up. TubeStop is a Firefox add-on that prevents YouTube videos from auto-starting. When you see a YouTube video embedded in a web page, you usually have to click the video to make it start. If you visit that video's page on YouTube it will auto-start, which is kind of annoying if you open a few tabs with different windows. TubeStop lets you start them one at a time without having to click pause on each video first.

Anyway, it turns out that TubeStop has magical properties that also prevent the new overlay ads from popping up. It's sort of like AdBlock for YouTube that way. The trick has something to do with the fact that the ads only show up on YouTube and not when a video is embedded on another site. Whatever the reason, we're just impressed that it took all of two seconds for someone to find a TiVo for YouTube ads.

[via gHacks]

Filed under: Business, Fun, Internet, Video, Web services, Google

NBC finally getting ready to launch Didja, their response to YouTube

NBC finally getting ready to launch Didja, their response to YouTubeIt's a fact that NBC doesn't think much of YouTube and is out to build a competing company, will they succeed? Who knows, but one thing for sure is that they are extremely late to the game.

Didja.com, the giant cable company weapon will basically begin hosting commercials early next year. Simple fact of it all, NBC is expecting to make tons of cash showing advertisements for large brands that upload commercials and product offers to branded pages. People like to watch YouTube videos, and that includes the numerous ads and trailers that are submitted. Will viewers really flock to a social networking advertainment website that plays online commercials 24-7.

Are we not bombarded with ads enough in our daily lives? Do we actually need a location where we are hit with them from all angles?

[via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Web services

Watch commercials and get free stuff with AdPerk

AdPerk
Tired of being bombarded with advertisements and commercials every time you turn on the TV or open a web browser? That's the price you pay for "free content."

But AdPerk wants to offer you something a bit more direct. The startup has partnered with advertisers to provide you free goods, like magazine subscriptions, in exchange for your time. Right now, AdPerk is running a deal with Dwell Magazine, which has convinced several of the advertisers from its print publication to participate.

When you visit AdPerk's site, you can choose from a list of videos to watch. For each 30 second video, you'll get 1 credit. A 90 second video will get you 3 credits. You get the idea. 10 credits gets you 5 issues of Dwell Magazine. The company plans to offer a similar promotion next month with Popular Science.

The idea is that the magazines can expand their readership with the free issues, and advertisers can get active viewers. In order to redeem your credit, you need to watch a complete video and enter a code that pops up at the end. You can't walk away from your computer while the commercial plays in the background, because you only have about 30 seconds to enter the code after the video stops.

Given the fact that it's not that hard to get free magazine subscriptions these days (it seems like you can pick them up by opening a bank account, making a pledge to your local public radio station, or just crossing the street), AdPerk might need to get some more compelling gifts in order to convince people to treat ads the same way they do dramatic videos of prairie dogs.

[via 9:01AM]

Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Web services, Google

Google Announces TV Ads, users get watched

google tvEveryone knows its America's number one pastime, and now Google has announced their entrance into the TV ad market.

There has been a lot of speculation recently surrounding the fact that Google's been nosing around the TV market to extend their offline ad experimentations, and it was just a matter of time before the news officially dropped. With this new TV Ad trial, Google hopes to improve user experiences and bring value to both advertisers and publishers. They are currently working with EchoStar and Astound Cable to deliver ads to viewers, as well as helping advertisers and programmers buy, schedule, deliver and of course measure ads on television. We also dropped news this morning about how Google and Dish Networks will be announcing a deal to serve ads over their network.

The ads will be purchased through an automated interface auction model, pricing based on a CPM basis with ads then targeted by demographic, time of day and channel. The ads will be delivered with all reporting and statistics done through set top box technologies. The boxes will report on how many times an ad was viewed and whether it was watched in completion.

So needless to say, if more advertisers buy into Google's technology and take the statistics into consideration when planning campaigns, we might never see boring, useless commercials ever again! Then again, it sure does feel a little like big brother is watching us.

Filed under: Internet, News, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft moving most of its $1 billion ad budget online

Windows Vista tower photo by Jakob MontrasioMicrosoft says within three years it will be spending most of its nearly $1 billion ad budget online. Microsoft execs say it makes sense to spend money where the customers are, and most of Microsoft's target market spends a decent amount of time online.

I think it's fairly safe to say Microsoft won't be spending all (or any) of that money on Google Adwords.

The company is also experimenting with new types of advertising, making use of RSS feeds and mobile services. And don't forget the somewhat cool, somewhat annoying Windows Vista promo that airs at the end of NBC's Heroes where scenes from next week's episode are shown playing on a Windows Vista desktop.

Filed under: Hardware, Retrocomputing

The history of the personal computer in TV commercials

When the computer takes a big step forward, I always like to take a look back. We can argue all day over whether Microsoft Windows Vista (win your copy from Download Squad here!) is revolutionary, evolutionary or just marketing hype. With around half a billion Dollars being spent on Vista's marketing launch I'd personally lean towards the latter of the three but, it does make me think... What about the marketing for the computers of our past, when home computers promised, as Atari once put it, "A World Beyond Your Wildest Dreams"?

The earliest "home computers required skills far beyond what today's most hands-on computer enthusiasts need to master. The earliest promise of computing at home came from an obscure company called MITS, in the form of the Altair. A DIY, soldering iron and lots of patience required, read output off the LEDs on the front panel, hope you took computer science classes kind of hobby machine, we owe the Altair one major thing; Microsoft. Founded around the BASIC language interpreter Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote for the fledgling machine, "Micro-Soft" wouldn't be the company we know today without the Altair 8800. In 1977 MITS started selling the Altair as a pre-assembled computer, removing the giant barrier to entry that was assembling the beast from scratch in your basement and creating the personal computer market as we know it.

Of course, it wasn't until the 1980s that the personal computer got a real marketing department. Atari, Apple, Commodore and IBM all duked-it-out in 30 second increments during the early 1980s with ads like these.

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Filed under: Utilities, Video, Windows, Open Source

Cbreak: Easily remove commercials from AVI files

CbreakCbreak is a tiny open source app for Windows that makes it easy to remove commercials from TV shows recorded as AVI files. How it works is this: Cbreak divides the video into segments according to where black frames appear. Then it has two modes: In automatic mode (or "autonomic," if you want to get fancy) it will toss out any segments shorter than 60 seconds (or some other length of your choosing). In manual mode it plays each segment for you and you can choose whether you want to keep it or not. It has a lot of command line options, including—I kid you not—special modes for skit shows like Saturday Night Live.

[Via Digg]

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