14 DAY TRIAL // By any standards, Microsoft’s marketing campaign for Windows 7 is much more modest compared to that of Windows Vista. The difference in financial resources allocated to each platform can be explained by a shift in focus as far as the message accompanying each operating system goes. With Windows Vista, Microsoft attempted to convince the world that the OS delivered the Wow factor, and it spent a reportedly $500 million attempting to do just that, and some might argue, failing to do it in fact. For Windows 7, the Redmond company is driving home the idea of absolute simplicity. The video advertisements offered by Microsoft to Switzerland customers are designed for this specific purpose.
Just watch the videos embedded at the bottom of this article, courtesy of Rob Margel, working in Windows Web Services and Content team in the UK. The message users can see at the end apparently reads “Windows 7 is designed to simplify your everyday tasks, work the way you want, and make new things possible.”
This is exactly why the very concepts and messages behind the Windows 7 video ads are as simple as the idea they need to sell to customers. Whether it be sticking mail into a mail box, taking out the garbage or walking the dog, all simple tasks, can be performed even easier than what users were accustomed to. The same is valid for Windows 7, which delivers not only enhanced performance compared to its predecessors, but also improvements enabling users to seamlessly do their tasks, and streamline even the most mundane action.
Windows 7 is now at over two months since general availability, and so far problems have been few and accolades plenty, unlike the case for Vista. And although it has stated repeatedly that Windows 7 has been outselling Vista, Microsoft has yet to deliver any statistics illustrating the actual market success of its latest Windows client.