Microsoft Windows: RESTARTING AMERICA’S SCREENS

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Agency: STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP
Category: Best Use of Screens
President: Brent Poer (Starcom MediaVest Group)
Senior Vice President Group Director: Dan Arzewski (Starcom MediaVest Group)
Senior Vice President Director: Sasha Wolfe (Starcom MediaVest Group)

Effectiveness
We introduced a whole new world through Windows 8 by restarting U.S. TV screens with over 100 TRPs in a single night. That night, the custom content alone garnered over 108m impressions and the scale continued to grow as the campaign went on. It was instrumental in helping to drive sales of 40 Million Windows 8 licenses by late November, 10 Million more than Windows 7 in its first two months of launch. That number climbed to 60 Million by early January.

Strategy
How do you launch the radically reimagined update of the world’s most well-known operating system (OS), Windows, when few outside of Microsoft and some key press had ever seen or touched it? Windows 8 is most powerful when personalized for each user. It’s touch first, fueled by apps, running on next generation hardware and new features like the Start Screen with customizable lives tiles, picture password, and sharing would change people’s experience both technically and personally. We had to create immersive experiences to bring forward the beauty of the OS, but in known media environments. Why? Because if the OS can transform things people know so well into something so different, Windows 8 must be an experience like never before. Our launch approach was to create the largest U.S. TV screen restart across every program on Network Prime TV, showing Windows 8’s transformative features through beloved shows and characters.

Execution
On launch night, we interweaved the OS across every show on every broadcast TV network during primetime, completely reimagining people’s favorite TV shows and characters through Windows 8. We told 15 unique Windows 8 stories, one with each program, like a picture password from the character Jenna on NBC’s “30 Rock” and a Start Screen dedicated to CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory”. We even incorporated Windows 8 into Baseball’s World Series championship on FOX. It was a branded TV takeover on a scale never seen before, supported by media weight for the campaign across all 5 broadcast and 20 cable networks. No matter what show people watched, they saw it come to life in a Windows 8 way.