Microsoft: Microsoft Course Iq

Credits & Description:

Title: Microsoft Course Iq
Agency: Mccann New York, Mrm//Mccann
Brand: Microsoft
Country: USA
Entrant Company: Mrm//Mccann, New York
Advertising Agency: Mccann New York / Mrm//Mccann, New York
Media Agency: Carat, New York
Additional Company: Microsoft, Redmond / Wsj. Custom Studios, New York
Creative Director: Emmeli Osterdahl (Mrm//Mccann)
Cvp Global Advertising & Media: Kathleen Hall (Microsoft)
Gm, Global Advertising: Deana Singleton (Microsoft)
Director, Global Marketing Communications: Carol Hutchinson (Microsoft)
Director, Global Advertising: Steve Simmons (Microsoft)
Director, Global Advertising: Jenny Leahy (Microsoft)
Senior Manager, Global Advertising: Charlene Marsh (Microsoft)
Senior Manager, Global Advertising: Markus Weickenmeier (Microsoft)
Software Engineer: Stefan Gordon (Microsoft)
Software Engineer: Andre Price (Microsoft)
Software Engineer: Tyler Gibson (Microsoft)
Software Engineer: Anthony Turner (Microsoft)
Evp, Chief Creative Officer: Sung Chang (Mrm//Mccann)
Ux Director: Daniel Schultze (Mrm//Mccann)
Ux Director: Flora Kwong (Mrm//Mccann)
Co-Chief Creative Officer: Sean Bryan (Mccann New York)
Co-Chief Creative Officer: Tom Murphy (Mccann New York)
President: John Dunleavy (Mccann New York)
Managing Director: Kevin Nelson (Mccann New York)
Evp, Executive Creative Director: Jim Hord (Mccann New York)
Svp, Group Creative Director: Roberto Santellana (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Art Director: Michael Kremer (Mrm//Mccann)
Copywriter: Elina Rudkovskaya (Mccann New York)
Interactive Producer: Sean Flanigan (Mccann New York)
Evp, Group Account Director: Tina Galley (Mccann New York)
Svp, Group Account Director: Jason Kolinsky (Mrm//Mccann)
Vp, Account Director: Rosemary Calderone (Mccann New York)
Account Supervisor: Sarah Livingston (Mccann New York)
Group Strategy Director: Todd Sussman (Mccann New York)
Software Engineer: Anastasia Zolochevska (Microsoft)
Strategy:
While the utility is inherently digital, we started in a very analog place: collaborating with legendary pen and paper, old school, golf course architect Gil Hanse, to help identify the obvious, and not so obvious, influences to the game – elements like altitude, humidity and grass quality. We aggregated real-time and historical data from third-party sources like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USGA player scorecard data, even geological survey data from government satellite imagery. From there we built a database of millions of data points from over 13,000 courses, cataloged them all with advanced algorithms through Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. And finally we took ultra-high-resolution programmed 3D drone scans of some of the most premier courses in North America. It all combined to give detailed, immersive picture of how the course plays and best time to play the course, such as the best tee time, and the course variance by season.
Outcome:
We launched Course IQ as a beta version in the off season and the results have exceeded our expectations. In just a short period of time, we had over 40,000 visits to the site, with an average engagement of over 6 pages per visit. These weren’t just visitors browsing around, they were C-Suite decision makers using cloud-enabled intelligence to study their local course. And with each click, search and flyover, Microsoft Cloud earned more credibility with them. In addition, while we didn’t set out to connect with startups, to our surprise, because of the unique capabilities of the data engine we developed, multiple organizations have inquired about using it and the Microsoft Cloud to kick start their own new products. In the end, we proved that best way to connect with the C-Suite is not to disrupt their Saturday afternoon on the couch, but rather make it better for them on the course.
Campaign Description:
If you’re looking to connect with the C-Suite in a meaningful way, golf is a pretty good place to start. They watch it. They play. They obsess over it. And in between playing golf and obsessing over it is where our idea lives. Microsoft Course IQ – a digital tool that helps golfers apply better course strategy by using the Microsoft Cloud to unlock unprecedented data-driven intelligence for nearly every golf course in North America. A demonstration of the power of the Microsoft Cloud in the hands of the C-suite while they are on the fairway.Finally, the C-suite, who rarely interact with the IT infrastructure of their business, have a tangible example of what the cloud can do on the golf course, so they understand how it can help in the office.
Relevancy:
This is the story of how Microsoft integrated data from multiple sources to deliver meaningful and actionable intelligence into the hands of the C-suite audience – and in doing so, turned the often-abstract concept of cloud computing into a tangible and highly relevant demonstration of what the Microsoft Cloud can do.
Media Strategy:
Obviously, we couldn’t just present the C-suite with millions of data points across every golf course in America. We needed to apply the data in a way that made it accessible and usable. That’s where the drones came in. We fly drones over some of the most famous golf courses in the America. Using programmatically generated flight plans, we captured over 10 thousand photos using photogrammetry software, we geotagged each photo by correlating GPS logs generated by the drones to time stamps on the photographs, then we fed all of the photos into Pix4D Mapper to generate high-resolution 3D maps. Ultimately, we integrated 99,014,934,528 pixels with real-time weather data, course architecture data such as soil composition and historical player data like performance by season, all into one seamless and intuitive demonstration of what the Microsoft Cloud can do.
Synopsis:
This is not your father’s Microsoft. That Microsoft had it easy. It didn’t have to fight for market share because it invented the market. But Microsoft’s future depends on leading a new market, Enterprise Cloud Computing, and becoming a ‘cloud-first, mobile-first’ company. Which isn’t easy when the competition, Google and Amazon, were ‘born in the cloud.’ The audience: The C-suite of large enterprise companies – the people who are both notoriously skeptical of change yet always on the hunt for ways their business can adapt to modern times.The challenge: Get the C-suite to reevaluate Microsoft as a leader in cloud computing. The objective: Demonstrate the power of the Microsoft Cloud by making it personally relevant to them.