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Microsoft's DroidRage Twitter campaign goes painfully wrong

191 points by CrankyBear 14y ago

drivebyacct2 14y ago
What the hell were they expecting?
- necenzurat 14y ago
  it's MS, maybe 80% marketshare
- neumann_alfred 14y ago
  NOBODY expects the robotic liberation! [1] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SdGkkp1aq8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SdGkkp1aq8 (I am aware this will rightfully get modded down but sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do)
TillE 14y ago
The funny thing is, there are plenty of things I don't like about Android. Areas where Windows might provide a better user experience. But malware fearmongering is a bizarre tactic. For the vast vast vast majority of users, it's a hypothetical rather than an actual experience.
- drzaiusapelord 14y ago
  Considering most windows users live in a sea of malware and I have yet to see a personal computer from one of my users that wasn't deeply infested, what makes MS think people actually care? I hate that the WP product team, which has done a bang-up job, has to deal with incompetent marketing like this. Android has many, many unresolved and probably unresolvable problems. Buying a Nexus model solves most of these problems, but wow, what a goddamn mess Touchwiz and Sense based phones are. I had to wipe my wife's SGS2 and put CM9 on there just to stop a mystery battery drain that made her phone useless, even after many factory resets. Samsung blamed google and google blamed samsung and t-mobile blamed everyone but themselves. Way, way too many chefs here. Apple and MS get it. You don't give carriers and OEM control over your mobile OS, because they will be poor stewards of it. Once my Nexus gets long in the tooth I might move to WP8. It looks pretty sharp.
  - bad_user 14y ago
    I own a Galaxy S (first gen) with Touchwiz-enabled Android 2.3.6 on it. My next phone is going to be a Nexus, but the first generation of Galaxy S is the best phone I ever owned and it replaced my iPhone 3GS. Battery life lasts for 4 days of normal usage, after I installed an app from Google Play that disables data/wifi when in standby or at night, otherwise it lasts for 2 days. I tried upgrading, but battery life is too important to me and the device is too under-powered for newer Android versions, not to mention that all Exynos devices, such as the Galaxy S family, have problems with custom ROMs like CyanogenMod because of a lack of source-code for drivers. Phones like Sony Xperia T are much, much better in this regard. Also I discovered that even though Jelly Bean is completely awesome when it comes to UI and new features, it doesn't really do anything groundbreaking that my Gingerbread doesn't do. I do have 2 or 3 apps that have been bundled by Samsung, but I just ignore them. Considering that I got the phone for $20 on a reasonable contract, it was a steal anyway. And can your Windows Phone or your iOS device block phone calls / sms messages? Can it save battery life by turning data on or off on schedule? Can it run Firefox? I thought so.
  - meaty 14y ago
    TBH I've only seen a couple of "rotten" machines in the last few years. It's not all that bad. Regarding WP, it's a fucking mess. I've had two handsets now and while it's a good product at the core, some of the decisions (such as isolated storage) are just shit. It's virtually impossible moving data around apps except using cut and paste or network access. Also, the network and connection management stuff is painful if you have to switch between 3.5G and WiFi. The battery life on my last handset (a Lumia 710) was abysmal even with no apps installed and everything cleaned out. Oh and long term support is just crap - look at the palava around the 7.8 upgrade. My other half's Galaxy Ace is actually pretty crap as well TouchWiz is horrible, it's slow and the screen is crap. Everyone I know with a Galaxy S2/S3 is not satisfied with it. I got given an iPhone 4S as well (which the proximity sensor had packed in on) which was horrible as well - iOS UI is so noisy, the handset is obviously suspect if the proximity sensor doesn't even work (didn't work properly from purchase date) and you can't even replace the battery. All this pushed me back to grabbing a Nokia 6303 until I found out that the things are changing hands for £100GBP+ now from people who have given up on SmartPhones. It's all gone batshit. I just want a phone that works.
- nollidge 14y ago
  It's not bizarre if WP doesn't actually improve on any of those areas.
- wpietri 14y ago
  Fearmongering, alas, doesn't require much in the way of actual experience. Look at American perception of crime versus actual crime rates. Fear of flying versus actual risk. Or the amount of money we spend "fighting" "terrorism" versus actual harm. I suspect a campaign like this could have worked if Microsoft didn't have a giant pot/kettle problem.
TallGuyShort 14y ago
I'm afraid I don't keep myself well-informed on the mobile space, and I've heard reference to malware in Android several times recently. Could someone fill me in? Is there fear of malicious software at the system level? Or is this just FUD about spammy apps? edit: Also - it's unfortunate that only yesterday was I reading about the Scroogle campaign. Not to single out Microsoft as the only company that advertises like this, but it's sad to see them sinking to that level...
- revelation 14y ago
  It's just spammy apps. There are very few apps that actively exploit open bugs to elevate their rights, and then mostly to facilitate jailbreaking :) The problem of course is the screwed up rights system. Instead of presenting a big list of permissions for every app on install, how about you just ask me directly if the app is about to send a text to some number not in my contact list?
  - pi18n 14y ago
    All device permissions should be opt-in from a checklist on first launch, and there should be an option to make your device pretend to opt-in but use fake data. "Can such-and-such app use your location?" "Sure, I am in the middle of the Pacific."
  - gurkendoktor 14y ago
    Between exploits and spam, there is also the possibility of phishing. I have heard of fake Yahoo Mail apps making the rounds but couldn't find them - maybe that was outside of the Play Market (it was in Asia, where Yahoo is big).
- talmand 14y ago
  Well, I can't speak of Android malware in general but from my personal experience of owning both a phone and tablet with Android the idea of malware has never crossed my mind. Then again, I don't worry much about malware on Windows because I pay attention to what I'm doing.
- hackinthebochs 14y ago
RKoutnik 14y ago
Honestly, what were they thinking? Android has a large userbase with plenty of fanboys (I'm one of them). This is just another case of large corporations treating social media like another advertising platform instead of using it to interface with customers. Win8 was a great idea (same interface on all of my devices? Great!) but Microsoft has really dropped the ball. I'm glad someone did it, now who's going to do it right?
madoublet 14y ago
I couldn't read past the Steven J byline. That guy has lost all credibility, in my opinion.
- Posibyte 14y ago
  I know this comment doesn't particularly reflect the quality of the article, but it does have some meat to it. Steven J Vaughan-Nichols has a deep history of entirely one-sided, poorly written articles that bash Microsoft and boast Linux beyond all reasonable means. He likes to cherry-pick results many times to support his reasoning. Since I believe the author alone affects the quality of the article, I can fully see where seeing his name automatically causes the quality to dwindle.
  - madoublet 14y ago
    Thanks. I think your comment above should be posted as a disclaimer on every post he writes that makes it to HN.
netcan 14y ago
You can accuse or compliment microsoft on many things, but they've never been slick.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  This is just confirmation bias, the "slick" Microsoft isn't newsworthy.
Dirlewanger 14y ago
Microsoft completely underestimated what the public still thinks of their brand when they start to fling the shit. Gonna be a loooooong time before they shake the reputation of being that company who makes the bloated OS/malware everywhere/Clippy.
kamjam 14y ago
It's a shame when companies cannot let their products speak for themselves, and rather than showing off the positive aspects of their product they have to resort to (trying to) belittle the competition. Are Microsoft now using the same PR firms that they use for the Presidential elections who specialize in this kind of mud-slinging? It was obvious this was going to happen, what really did they expect? Even if they had a few stories come through, they are all but drowned out by everyone else. Funny they did not run a #iPhoneRage campaign... although there is still time yet!
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  >Are Microsoft now using the same PR firms that they use for the Presidential elections who specialize in this kind of mud-slinging You might find this relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887574 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887574 I'd read the same thing elsewhere yesterday, when I looked for it, all I could find was dan's comment.
  - kamjam 14y ago
    Thanks for that. Would make a lot of sense if this were true though!
tokenadult 14y ago
After all these years, Microsoft still needs to get on the Cluetrain. With worldwide instantaneous one-to-many, one-to-one, and many-to-one communication available to the masses, business these days has to be a conversation, not a monolog. http://www.cluetrain.com/ http://www.cluetrain.com/ "A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. "These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked. "Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do." Of course, just now as I use the Google Play store, I'm reminded that the king of search still needs to improve the search capabilities of its own online store. Everyone in the industry has more to learn from customers.
- bcoates 14y ago
  Microsoft's hit and mostly miss marketing aside, the company itself is pretty open and engaged for one of it's size. Lots of employee blogs, hosted forums, public bug trackers, early and long-running open betas. They'd been crowdsourcing crash dumps for years before anyone knew what "crowdsourcing" was.
toyg 14y ago
I think somebody should study how MS marketing works, make it a case-study. Every time they try to be "hip", they end up looking like fools. Remember that weird Seinfeld ad? The spooky over-polished family for Windows 7? The competition on "speed-of-opening-apps" on WP7 where nobody was allowed to win? When they stick to the basics, they usually manage to be half-decent, like for the Windows 8 campaign: safe, completely unremarkable, but at least it didn't blow further holes in the already-tarnished brand. TL;DR: dear Microsoft, don't try to be hip.
- dangrossman 14y ago
  Their marketing's pretty terrible even when they don't try to be hip. To promote Bing, they hired a political strategist who came up with this atrocity -- http://www.scroogled.com/ http://www.scroogled.com/
  - pyre 14y ago
    Political strategist comes up with a smear campaign, nobody saw that coming...
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  And the funny thing is that they ended up looking like tools even when they used (use?) CP + B, the same ad agency as Apple (and a very good one at that). But as anyone who has watched Mad Men knows, the clients can completely screw up a marketing campaign with their ridiculous demands. The problem with trying to look hip is that if you have to try in the first place, you're just not hip. This is a problem that seems to have to plagued Microsoft over and over throughout the years.
  - trimbo 14y ago
    > CP + B, the same ad agency as Apple Uhm, no it's not. Apple has used Chiat/Day since the 80s.
  - sharkweek 14y ago
    A day in the life of an ad agency: - Get hired by huge company - Have dozens of creative ideas, present them each to the client - Get rejected on all fronts - Have dozens of watered-down ideas, present them each to the client - They approve one of the ideas, but request X, Y and Z all be changed (most likely watered down) - Create the idea, send over for approval - Hear nothing back - Email contact dozens of times hoping for feedback - Finally hear back with contact saying it's going up the chain of command for approval(most likely lost in the email black hole) - Someone you've never heard of from the higher ups emails you and asks for a bunch of changes - Make changes (once again, watering the concept down) - Realize the ad has nothing unique or creative in it, send it back to client; they love it. - Cry at desk
hackinthebochs 14y ago
So a handful of contrary tweets now count as backlash? Oh please. This is the problem when any journalist tries to use twitter to provide an angle to a story: you can always cherry pick enough tweets to justify whatever narrative you wish to push. Without hard numbers this article is completely meaningless.
- deleted 14y ago
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- kumarm 14y ago
  May be do a search for DroidRage on twitter? Its full of MSFT backlash.
sek 14y ago
I think the problem Microsoft has is that FUD is in their DNA. I worked well 10 years ago. Seriously maleware on Android? I install a lot of crappy apps and one abused notifications for promotions. This coming from Microsoft is reality satire. Now they call their phone "windows" and the tag you should use is "droidrage". It never occurred to anybody there this could be a bad idea?
tferraz 14y ago
I've never seen a facebook or twitter campaign not going terribly wrong.
- shuzchen 14y ago
  I've actually seen a lot of successful twitter campaigns. Barack Obama has had a few good runs during the campaign (with #forward2012) and recently with #my2k to push his side of the fiscal cliff issue. Any twitter campaign will have participants who try to hijack the campaign for the opposing view. However, Obama has a strong enough base (I mean, ~50% of voters cast a ballet for him, and he does have a stronger hold on the younger, more-likely-to-tweet demographic) participating to drown out the hijackers. The problem with this Windows campaign (I mean, besides that they tried the exact same thing before and failed) is that they specifically preclude their most devout supporters from participating. Anyone who is a die-hard Windows Phone fan has probably switched to WP when it was first available, and some probably have never touched android (I mean, they might have held onto Windows CE - anybody remember that? - until the first WP came out). In addition, anyone already using the latest WP hardware has no reason to tweet in order to win a free phone they already own. So given this situation where MS's strong supporters have no content or reason to tweet, guess who rises up to fill the dead space? This campaign failed because it was designed to fail.
navneetpandey 14y ago
The best tweet was I tried to install Hotmail app and guess what it contained Malware.
fitzpasd 14y ago
I don't think this will be chalked down as a total failure. With the low market share that WP has, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
praptak 14y ago
I can only imagine the corporate decision process behind this disaster: some big kahuna pushing this idiocy with everybody else too scared/apathetic to oppose.
TomMasz 14y ago
This is just the sort of thing that could have been avoided with some time spent researching the Android-oriented web sites and forums. No current mobile platform is without flaws but assuming that everyone thinks alike with regards to those flaws is just foolish.
jentulman 14y ago
I think this speaks towards a lack of confidence in the winphone product, at least on the part of the marketeers behind this campaign. To go on the attack as part of your campaign says that you're feeling defensive and negative about your own position and that you've run out of positives to trumpet.
runjake 14y ago
Look, this is a class example of media-generated hype. Yesterday, some other tech news site declared something like Microsoft's "DroidRage" campaign EXPLODES in their face. In their article, they quote over a half dozen tweets. So I go onto Twitter and do a search for DroidRage and this "explosion" is actually more like a dozen or two people having fun with Microsoft. Anyway, after the publishing of yesterday's article and it's subsequent posting on TechMeme and the Twittersphere, #DroigRage replies explode with everyone trying to get their Seinfeld moment. Look, I think Microsoft's campaign and that kind of marketing are awful. Ballmer and their marketing dept should be wiped clean. You're alienating loyalists of whatever product you're making fun of. But this is a total non-story. It's more of a meme and a chance to stick One More Thing on Microsoft. This is not newsworthy.
- mcantelon 14y ago
  It's definitely not a weighty story, but certainly worthy of a chuckle due to the cluelessness needed to think the #droidrage campaign was a good idea. On the bright side for Microsoft, more people will actually learn they're selling a phone of some kind.
- easytiger 14y ago
  > This is not newsworthy. Of course it is. Don't be ridiculous.
- kumarm 14y ago
  I thought its media Generated hype too till I actually did twitter search on DroidRage and found its real. It helps everyone of us to actually check it before posting an ignorant comment.
  - garretruh 14y ago
    I think the point he/she is trying to make is that it only became as "real" as it is now after the coverage on news sites yesterday. Then everybody decided to jump on the anti-Microsoft sentiment and share their own supposedly funny #DroidRage's.
  - deleted 14y ago
danso 14y ago
This reminds me of the #MuslimRage backfire that Newsweek got after publishing a controversial story about, well, "Muslim Rage", and asking Twitter users to use that hashtag to, I guess, talk about their own opinions of Muslim Rage: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/17/161315765/muslim-rage-explodes-on-twitter-but-in-a-funny-way-yes-really http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/17/161315765/mus... Here's a social-media-tip: If you are the progenitor of an idea/product, people are automatically wary of self-promotional antics. If your self-promotional antics involve asking others to do your dirty work: i.e. bash the competition, your self-promotional antics will likely backfire on you. People generally don't like negative emotions when they're using social media...except in the Schadenfreude of watching things backfire, especially when the victim is a big corporation.
- svachalek 14y ago
  #muslimrage backfire was classy and funny and worth the read. #[an]droidrage tweets, not so much.
l0c0b0x 14y ago
I guess am not the only one that thinks Microsoft's marketing strategy is and has always been pure garbage. You'd think they would have grown out of this pathetic style a long time ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sforhbLiwLA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sforhbLiwLA
- philwelch 14y ago
  You realize that was an internal spoof, right?
tobyjsullivan 14y ago
What an excellent example of how not to do things. Always operate your business with integrity and you cannot lose. And people ask me why start-ups aren't getting into bed with Microsoft these days... Because who wants a company like this as your biggest partner?
charonn0 14y ago
Be mindful of your glass house, Microsofties.
j_baker 14y ago
Did Microsoft recently hire Karl Rove as head of marketing? This is classic push polling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll
mykhamill 14y ago
The only problem I see it that MS win either way. Not that I like MS, I don't, but all these companies [http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2011/10/24/does-microsoft-own-android.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2011/10/24/does-microsof...] produce androids and have to give MS money. So MS doesn't really care who wins in the Android vs WP game, just that it is one of them.
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191 points by CrankyBear 14y ago

drivebyacct2 14y ago

What the hell were they expecting?

necenzurat 14y ago
it's MS, maybe 80% marketshare
neumann_alfred 14y ago
NOBODY expects the robotic liberation! [1] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SdGkkp1aq8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SdGkkp1aq8 (I am aware this will rightfully get modded down but sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do)

TillE 14y ago

The funny thing is, there are plenty of things I don't like about Android. Areas where Windows might provide a better user experience. But malware fearmongering is a bizarre tactic. For the vast vast vast majority of users, it's a hypothetical rather than an actual experience.

drzaiusapelord 14y ago
Considering most windows users live in a sea of malware and I have yet to see a personal computer from one of my users that wasn't deeply infested, what makes MS think people actually care? I hate that the WP product team, which has done a bang-up job, has to deal with incompetent marketing like this. Android has many, many unresolved and probably unresolvable problems. Buying a Nexus model solves most of these problems, but wow, what a goddamn mess Touchwiz and Sense based phones are. I had to wipe my wife's SGS2 and put CM9 on there just to stop a mystery battery drain that made her phone useless, even after many factory resets. Samsung blamed google and google blamed samsung and t-mobile blamed everyone but themselves. Way, way too many chefs here. Apple and MS get it. You don't give carriers and OEM control over your mobile OS, because they will be poor stewards of it. Once my Nexus gets long in the tooth I might move to WP8. It looks pretty sharp.
- bad_user 14y ago
  I own a Galaxy S (first gen) with Touchwiz-enabled Android 2.3.6 on it. My next phone is going to be a Nexus, but the first generation of Galaxy S is the best phone I ever owned and it replaced my iPhone 3GS. Battery life lasts for 4 days of normal usage, after I installed an app from Google Play that disables data/wifi when in standby or at night, otherwise it lasts for 2 days. I tried upgrading, but battery life is too important to me and the device is too under-powered for newer Android versions, not to mention that all Exynos devices, such as the Galaxy S family, have problems with custom ROMs like CyanogenMod because of a lack of source-code for drivers. Phones like Sony Xperia T are much, much better in this regard. Also I discovered that even though Jelly Bean is completely awesome when it comes to UI and new features, it doesn't really do anything groundbreaking that my Gingerbread doesn't do. I do have 2 or 3 apps that have been bundled by Samsung, but I just ignore them. Considering that I got the phone for $20 on a reasonable contract, it was a steal anyway. And can your Windows Phone or your iOS device block phone calls / sms messages? Can it save battery life by turning data on or off on schedule? Can it run Firefox? I thought so.
- meaty 14y ago
  TBH I've only seen a couple of "rotten" machines in the last few years. It's not all that bad. Regarding WP, it's a fucking mess. I've had two handsets now and while it's a good product at the core, some of the decisions (such as isolated storage) are just shit. It's virtually impossible moving data around apps except using cut and paste or network access. Also, the network and connection management stuff is painful if you have to switch between 3.5G and WiFi. The battery life on my last handset (a Lumia 710) was abysmal even with no apps installed and everything cleaned out. Oh and long term support is just crap - look at the palava around the 7.8 upgrade. My other half's Galaxy Ace is actually pretty crap as well TouchWiz is horrible, it's slow and the screen is crap. Everyone I know with a Galaxy S2/S3 is not satisfied with it. I got given an iPhone 4S as well (which the proximity sensor had packed in on) which was horrible as well - iOS UI is so noisy, the handset is obviously suspect if the proximity sensor doesn't even work (didn't work properly from purchase date) and you can't even replace the battery. All this pushed me back to grabbing a Nokia 6303 until I found out that the things are changing hands for £100GBP+ now from people who have given up on SmartPhones. It's all gone batshit. I just want a phone that works.
nollidge 14y ago
It's not bizarre if WP doesn't actually improve on any of those areas.
wpietri 14y ago
Fearmongering, alas, doesn't require much in the way of actual experience. Look at American perception of crime versus actual crime rates. Fear of flying versus actual risk. Or the amount of money we spend "fighting" "terrorism" versus actual harm. I suspect a campaign like this could have worked if Microsoft didn't have a giant pot/kettle problem.

TallGuyShort 14y ago

I'm afraid I don't keep myself well-informed on the mobile space, and I've heard reference to malware in Android several times recently. Could someone fill me in? Is there fear of malicious software at the system level? Or is this just FUD about spammy apps? edit: Also - it's unfortunate that only yesterday was I reading about the Scroogle campaign. Not to single out Microsoft as the only company that advertises like this, but it's sad to see them sinking to that level...

revelation 14y ago
It's just spammy apps. There are very few apps that actively exploit open bugs to elevate their rights, and then mostly to facilitate jailbreaking :) The problem of course is the screwed up rights system. Instead of presenting a big list of permissions for every app on install, how about you just ask me directly if the app is about to send a text to some number not in my contact list?
- pi18n 14y ago
  All device permissions should be opt-in from a checklist on first launch, and there should be an option to make your device pretend to opt-in but use fake data. "Can such-and-such app use your location?" "Sure, I am in the middle of the Pacific."
- gurkendoktor 14y ago
  Between exploits and spam, there is also the possibility of phishing. I have heard of fake Yahoo Mail apps making the rounds but couldn't find them - maybe that was outside of the Play Market (it was in Asia, where Yahoo is big).
talmand 14y ago
Well, I can't speak of Android malware in general but from my personal experience of owning both a phone and tablet with Android the idea of malware has never crossed my mind. Then again, I don't worry much about malware on Windows because I pay attention to what I'm doing.
hackinthebochs 14y ago

RKoutnik 14y ago

Honestly, what were they thinking? Android has a large userbase with plenty of fanboys (I'm one of them). This is just another case of large corporations treating social media like another advertising platform instead of using it to interface with customers. Win8 was a great idea (same interface on all of my devices? Great!) but Microsoft has really dropped the ball. I'm glad someone did it, now who's going to do it right?

madoublet 14y ago

I couldn't read past the Steven J byline. That guy has lost all credibility, in my opinion.

Posibyte 14y ago
I know this comment doesn't particularly reflect the quality of the article, but it does have some meat to it. Steven J Vaughan-Nichols has a deep history of entirely one-sided, poorly written articles that bash Microsoft and boast Linux beyond all reasonable means. He likes to cherry-pick results many times to support his reasoning. Since I believe the author alone affects the quality of the article, I can fully see where seeing his name automatically causes the quality to dwindle.
- madoublet 14y ago
  Thanks. I think your comment above should be posted as a disclaimer on every post he writes that makes it to HN.

netcan 14y ago

You can accuse or compliment microsoft on many things, but they've never been slick.

MartinCron 14y ago
This is just confirmation bias, the "slick" Microsoft isn't newsworthy.

Dirlewanger 14y ago

Microsoft completely underestimated what the public still thinks of their brand when they start to fling the shit. Gonna be a loooooong time before they shake the reputation of being that company who makes the bloated OS/malware everywhere/Clippy.

kamjam 14y ago

It's a shame when companies cannot let their products speak for themselves, and rather than showing off the positive aspects of their product they have to resort to (trying to) belittle the competition. Are Microsoft now using the same PR firms that they use for the Presidential elections who specialize in this kind of mud-slinging? It was obvious this was going to happen, what really did they expect? Even if they had a few stories come through, they are all but drowned out by everyone else. Funny they did not run a #iPhoneRage campaign... although there is still time yet!

drivebyacct2 14y ago
>Are Microsoft now using the same PR firms that they use for the Presidential elections who specialize in this kind of mud-slinging You might find this relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887574 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4887574 I'd read the same thing elsewhere yesterday, when I looked for it, all I could find was dan's comment.
- kamjam 14y ago
  Thanks for that. Would make a lot of sense if this were true though!

tokenadult 14y ago

After all these years, Microsoft still needs to get on the Cluetrain. With worldwide instantaneous one-to-many, one-to-one, and many-to-one communication available to the masses, business these days has to be a conversation, not a monolog. http://www.cluetrain.com/ http://www.cluetrain.com/ "A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. "These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked. "Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do." Of course, just now as I use the Google Play store, I'm reminded that the king of search still needs to improve the search capabilities of its own online store. Everyone in the industry has more to learn from customers.

bcoates 14y ago
Microsoft's hit and mostly miss marketing aside, the company itself is pretty open and engaged for one of it's size. Lots of employee blogs, hosted forums, public bug trackers, early and long-running open betas. They'd been crowdsourcing crash dumps for years before anyone knew what "crowdsourcing" was.

toyg 14y ago

I think somebody should study how MS marketing works, make it a case-study. Every time they try to be "hip", they end up looking like fools. Remember that weird Seinfeld ad? The spooky over-polished family for Windows 7? The competition on "speed-of-opening-apps" on WP7 where nobody was allowed to win? When they stick to the basics, they usually manage to be half-decent, like for the Windows 8 campaign: safe, completely unremarkable, but at least it didn't blow further holes in the already-tarnished brand. TL;DR: dear Microsoft, don't try to be hip.

dangrossman 14y ago
Their marketing's pretty terrible even when they don't try to be hip. To promote Bing, they hired a political strategist who came up with this atrocity -- http://www.scroogled.com/ http://www.scroogled.com/
- pyre 14y ago
  Political strategist comes up with a smear campaign, nobody saw that coming...
w1ntermute 14y ago
And the funny thing is that they ended up looking like tools even when they used (use?) CP + B, the same ad agency as Apple (and a very good one at that). But as anyone who has watched Mad Men knows, the clients can completely screw up a marketing campaign with their ridiculous demands. The problem with trying to look hip is that if you have to try in the first place, you're just not hip. This is a problem that seems to have to plagued Microsoft over and over throughout the years.
- trimbo 14y ago
  > CP + B, the same ad agency as Apple Uhm, no it's not. Apple has used Chiat/Day since the 80s.
- sharkweek 14y ago
  A day in the life of an ad agency: - Get hired by huge company - Have dozens of creative ideas, present them each to the client - Get rejected on all fronts - Have dozens of watered-down ideas, present them each to the client - They approve one of the ideas, but request X, Y and Z all be changed (most likely watered down) - Create the idea, send over for approval - Hear nothing back - Email contact dozens of times hoping for feedback - Finally hear back with contact saying it's going up the chain of command for approval(most likely lost in the email black hole) - Someone you've never heard of from the higher ups emails you and asks for a bunch of changes - Make changes (once again, watering the concept down) - Realize the ad has nothing unique or creative in it, send it back to client; they love it. - Cry at desk

hackinthebochs 14y ago

So a handful of contrary tweets now count as backlash? Oh please. This is the problem when any journalist tries to use twitter to provide an angle to a story: you can always cherry pick enough tweets to justify whatever narrative you wish to push. Without hard numbers this article is completely meaningless.

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kumarm 14y ago
May be do a search for DroidRage on twitter? Its full of MSFT backlash.

sek 14y ago

I think the problem Microsoft has is that FUD is in their DNA. I worked well 10 years ago. Seriously maleware on Android? I install a lot of crappy apps and one abused notifications for promotions. This coming from Microsoft is reality satire. Now they call their phone "windows" and the tag you should use is "droidrage". It never occurred to anybody there this could be a bad idea?

tferraz 14y ago

I've never seen a facebook or twitter campaign not going terribly wrong.

shuzchen 14y ago
I've actually seen a lot of successful twitter campaigns. Barack Obama has had a few good runs during the campaign (with #forward2012) and recently with #my2k to push his side of the fiscal cliff issue. Any twitter campaign will have participants who try to hijack the campaign for the opposing view. However, Obama has a strong enough base (I mean, ~50% of voters cast a ballet for him, and he does have a stronger hold on the younger, more-likely-to-tweet demographic) participating to drown out the hijackers. The problem with this Windows campaign (I mean, besides that they tried the exact same thing before and failed) is that they specifically preclude their most devout supporters from participating. Anyone who is a die-hard Windows Phone fan has probably switched to WP when it was first available, and some probably have never touched android (I mean, they might have held onto Windows CE - anybody remember that? - until the first WP came out). In addition, anyone already using the latest WP hardware has no reason to tweet in order to win a free phone they already own. So given this situation where MS's strong supporters have no content or reason to tweet, guess who rises up to fill the dead space? This campaign failed because it was designed to fail.

navneetpandey 14y ago

The best tweet was I tried to install Hotmail app and guess what it contained Malware.

fitzpasd 14y ago

I don't think this will be chalked down as a total failure. With the low market share that WP has, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

praptak 14y ago

I can only imagine the corporate decision process behind this disaster: some big kahuna pushing this idiocy with everybody else too scared/apathetic to oppose.

TomMasz 14y ago

This is just the sort of thing that could have been avoided with some time spent researching the Android-oriented web sites and forums. No current mobile platform is without flaws but assuming that everyone thinks alike with regards to those flaws is just foolish.

jentulman 14y ago

I think this speaks towards a lack of confidence in the winphone product, at least on the part of the marketeers behind this campaign. To go on the attack as part of your campaign says that you're feeling defensive and negative about your own position and that you've run out of positives to trumpet.

runjake 14y ago

Look, this is a class example of media-generated hype. Yesterday, some other tech news site declared something like Microsoft's "DroidRage" campaign EXPLODES in their face. In their article, they quote over a half dozen tweets. So I go onto Twitter and do a search for DroidRage and this "explosion" is actually more like a dozen or two people having fun with Microsoft. Anyway, after the publishing of yesterday's article and it's subsequent posting on TechMeme and the Twittersphere, #DroigRage replies explode with everyone trying to get their Seinfeld moment. Look, I think Microsoft's campaign and that kind of marketing are awful. Ballmer and their marketing dept should be wiped clean. You're alienating loyalists of whatever product you're making fun of. But this is a total non-story. It's more of a meme and a chance to stick One More Thing on Microsoft. This is not newsworthy.

mcantelon 14y ago
It's definitely not a weighty story, but certainly worthy of a chuckle due to the cluelessness needed to think the #droidrage campaign was a good idea. On the bright side for Microsoft, more people will actually learn they're selling a phone of some kind.
easytiger 14y ago
> This is not newsworthy. Of course it is. Don't be ridiculous.
kumarm 14y ago
I thought its media Generated hype too till I actually did twitter search on DroidRage and found its real. It helps everyone of us to actually check it before posting an ignorant comment.
- garretruh 14y ago
  I think the point he/she is trying to make is that it only became as "real" as it is now after the coverage on news sites yesterday. Then everybody decided to jump on the anti-Microsoft sentiment and share their own supposedly funny #DroidRage's.
- deleted 14y ago

danso 14y ago

This reminds me of the #MuslimRage backfire that Newsweek got after publishing a controversial story about, well, "Muslim Rage", and asking Twitter users to use that hashtag to, I guess, talk about their own opinions of Muslim Rage: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/17/161315765/muslim-rage-explodes-on-twitter-but-in-a-funny-way-yes-really http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/17/161315765/mus... Here's a social-media-tip: If you are the progenitor of an idea/product, people are automatically wary of self-promotional antics. If your self-promotional antics involve asking others to do your dirty work: i.e. bash the competition, your self-promotional antics will likely backfire on you. People generally don't like negative emotions when they're using social media...except in the Schadenfreude of watching things backfire, especially when the victim is a big corporation.

svachalek 14y ago
#muslimrage backfire was classy and funny and worth the read. #[an]droidrage tweets, not so much.

l0c0b0x 14y ago

I guess am not the only one that thinks Microsoft's marketing strategy is and has always been pure garbage. You'd think they would have grown out of this pathetic style a long time ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sforhbLiwLA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sforhbLiwLA

philwelch 14y ago
You realize that was an internal spoof, right?

tobyjsullivan 14y ago

What an excellent example of how not to do things. Always operate your business with integrity and you cannot lose. And people ask me why start-ups aren't getting into bed with Microsoft these days... Because who wants a company like this as your biggest partner?

charonn0 14y ago

Be mindful of your glass house, Microsofties.

j_baker 14y ago

Did Microsoft recently hire Karl Rove as head of marketing? This is classic push polling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll

mykhamill 14y ago

The only problem I see it that MS win either way. Not that I like MS, I don't, but all these companies [http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2011/10/24/does-microsoft-own-android.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2011/10/24/does-microsof...] produce androids and have to give MS money. So MS doesn't really care who wins in the Android vs WP game, just that it is one of them.

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