Ms. Adverthinker

That is me. I love this spot: Apple’s way of addressing Microsoft’s way of addressing Apple. Nice.

Last night I was watching TV while sitting in front of my computer, of course.  A Microsoft ad for Vista came on and it caught my attention.  The premise of the spot is that if people really knew how to use Vista, they would love it.  In hidden camera, focus group-style interactions, a host demonstrates a “new version of Windows,” Windows Mojave.  And, of course, people love Mojave and think it is perfect.  Big reveal: it is actually Vista!  The spot directs the viewer to MojaveExperiment.com for a Vista demonstration.  I went to the site immediately, expecting something new and user-friendly from Microsoft.  (Disclaimer: I am an Apple user.)  Also, knowing that Crispin Porter + Bogusky is Microsoft’s new agency, I made an assumption that the site would be great.  Here is the first thing I saw:

Well, I was not off to a very good start.  I have to download Windows software just to see the thing?  Um, no.  I will opt for the non-Silverlight version, whatever that is.

I expected to have an Apple-like experience.  Instead, I got a Microsoft-like experience.  Again.  Rather than immediately getting a list of features that I want to learn more about with a video demonstration option for each, Microsoft has given me a ton of video options where I can watch real people talking about the software during the “experiement.”  There is no indication before I click on each of these videos as to what feature might be discussed.  Then, the video open is QuickTime, where I have to click to play.  Didn’t I already select the video to play?  And, why doesn’t it play in the website?  This seems too complicated.

I didn’t want to give up too quickly.  So, I attempted to find what I was looking for - the features they showed to the people in the “experiment” that were so impressive.  I clicked on “See of Yourself,” one of the three main navigation options.  I got little commercials that talked about could be done, but didn’t show me any detail.

On my second visit to the site, I saw some videos in the bottom right that said “See demos used…”  Now this was what I was looking for originally.  And, once again, the videos were not helpful.

This site confirmed my prior beliefs: Microsoft is not user friendly.  I actually went to the site expecting and wanting to be convinced otherwise.

This is from an article in Advertising Age:

“Research from internet ad network Mindset Media confirms the ad’s personification of Mac users as superior and self-satisfied.  Its recent Mac user ‘mind-set profile’–a psychographic ranking system that scores respondents on 20 different elements of personality–found them to be more assured of their superiority, less modest and more open of the general population.”

“Far fewer cohesive personality traits emerged among PC owners, likely because of the breadth of PC ownership.  Given that 95% or so of all computer users own a PC, those users essentially are the general population.  The one area where PC users did stand out as statistically different was in creativity–low creativity, that is.  Mindset Media found they tend to be realists who are emotionally steady and work well with what they’re given.”

This makes total sense.  I don’t think research really had to be conducted to learn these things, but it is interesting that now there are statistics to confirm it.