Microsoft's new simple yet clever Windows 7 + Windows Live advert
Microsoft has been on a roll with adverts and commercials for Windows Phone 7 and Windows 7 recently. Today is no different. — The software giant just posted an impressive new Windows 7 and Windows Live advert that makes the viewer change their perspective.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's consumer advertising has been running as a continuous campaign rather than isolated spots since it took Windows Vista advertising to YouTube at the end of 2007, followed by the 'Family Guy' tie-in for Windows 7 in October 2009 and 7-Eleven ads for its 'real life' Windows star earlier that year. The new Windows 7 plus Windows Live spot lands two days after the Kinect launch and five weeks after Windows Phone 7's 'fresh start' debut, making mid-November 2010 one of Microsoft's densest marketing stretches.
What makes this ad notable within that arc is the pairing: it sells Windows Live — Microsoft's consumer services layer — inside a Windows 7 commercial, tying the desktop OS to the services brand at exactly the moment holiday shoppers are choosing PCs, phones, and Kinect hardware.
First-order effects
- The ad gives Windows Live consumer-brand exposure it rarely gets on its own, riding Windows 7's install base message during the peak holiday purchase window when Don Mattrick is already telling buyers to secure Kinect immediately due to limited availability.
- It extends the same advertising roll that carried Windows Phone 7's October launch, keeping phone and PC messaging in market simultaneously.
Second-order effects
- Bundling Windows Live into the flagship Windows 7 spot pressures the campaign's creative agencies and media buyers to treat services and OS as one sell, raising the bar for any standalone Windows Live promotion.
- Retail partners selling PCs, Windows Phone 7 handsets, and Kinect this season get a unified Microsoft message at the shelf rather than three competing product pitches.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Microsoft's marketing consolidates around a single ecosystem narrative spanning PC, phone, and services instead of product-by-product spots — a structure consistent with the unconfirmed leaked slide suggesting Windows 8 may present a 'desktop as a service.'
The trend: Microsoft's consumer marketing is settling into an always-on, multi-platform campaign rhythm in which individual products like Windows 7 advertise the broader Windows-plus-services ecosystem.