New York Times’ Stuart Elliot article yesterday discussed Microsoft’s 300 million dollar campaign to re-image and reposition itself after being “stereotyped” by Apple ads.
Apple ads have long been using “I’m a PC” to compare Microsoft products to Apple. Microsoft’s new ad uses an engineer who states “Hello, I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” This counterattack ad is not only thing Microsoft is doing in this new campaign. Celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Microsoft’s own Bill Gates, Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra and Pharrell Williams are all making cameos.
These cameos are creating buzz for the new campaign. Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates “teasers” commercials have been creating discussions since the airing in early September. Sarah Wurrey discusses the Mac vs. PC ad war on Media Bullseye at the beginning of the week, asking what Jerry and Bill’s ads actually mean.
Jerry’s exit announced today was captured on various tech media, entertainment pubs and mainstream outlets. For an exit off a commercial gig, Seinfeld receive a lot of press.
The campaign for Microsoft is going far beyond advertisements. Will this hurt or help Microsoft in the end? Is the 300 million dollar campaign going to change the image of “I’m a PC” and Microsoft as a whole? What’s Apple’s next step?
After battling some intense traffic this morning I finally made it to the Westin Hotel in Waltham- just in time to hear Derek Edmond’s lecture on SEO (although, too late to grab breakfast).
The presentation was very informative and he has an extensive knowledge of linking SEO to press releases. I was astounded to learn that in July 2008 there were over 1.5 billion search queries for news and media related results in Google. This got me thinking about how we can optimize visibility for our releases here at Topaz. Of course, Derek seemed to read my mind as he went on to address this issue. What I found really interesting was that it is not the quantity of keywords, but the quality. It’s better to have a few keywords that are extremely relevant than to have many keywords that don’t target your audience as well. It is also really important to have links in your press release. Derek explained that links help search engines understand what a site is about and why it is or isn’t important. Make sure your links are from a trusted source since this is an important part of the evaluation process for visibility on search engines.
There were many other tips that would simply take too long to write out, but I thought I would share that little bit of my informative morning. To end, let me say that simply putting your release out doesn’t guarantee coverage, you must outreach and communicate your message in order for people to take an interest in it. In fact, I’m about to go do so now!
Today is an exciting day for one of our clients, Prospero Technologies. The provider of social networking technology and services announced today it has been acquired by Mzinga, another locally-based company in the industry.
What is particularly exciting for us is that this is a great chance for us, along with people from the new combined Mzinga, to exercise our social media muscles.
Aside from our pitching blogs and podcasts in the space (in addition to “traditional” media of course), blog posts from both Mzinga and Prospero have put individual blog posts (here, here and here) showing how– and more importantly, why– some of the key executives and team members are excited about this news.
Further, we are taking the conversation to Twitter today (Monday, March 3), first by linking to announcements and blog posts (including this one), and then by sparking discussions about social media and online communities in a way that engages and serves the community; just as Mzinga and Prospero have been doing on their own platforms. I had a great time getting limited word out privately on Friday, which even included talking to a few marketing folks in Second Life (ok, now I’m letting my social media freak flag fly).
Also, I will be monitoring and joining in this conversation throughout the day, and then summarizing what transpires (http://twitter.com/dough), as will my colleague Sandy Kalik (http://twitter.com/skalik).
Our industry colleagues at Perkett PR are in on it as well.
Please join us!
As PR practitioners with a strong social media background, we at Topaz look forward to opportunities like these and relish diving into them.
