Marketing campaign successful - product dead
There is so much right as well as at the same time wrong about the viral marketing campaign Megawoosh by Microsoft that this has the potential to become a prime textbook case for many management students to come. Sure, the video is excellent and Microsoft actually managed to get it viral which, by itself, is a significant achievement.
But is anybody really believing that this campaign supports Microsoft Office? Is there anybody out there that did not know Office before and is now suddenly an Office fan? Or did Microsoft anything to make the case that Office was in any way helpful in the creation of the stunt/video? All the website does is to show a couple of Office documents that completely lost their relevance once it was known that the video was a fake.
With this campaign, Microsoft has clearly proven that they have no the slightest clue about how viral marketing in social networks works.
They did provide us with a couple of seconds of great entertainment though. Maybe they should forget about Office development and move into the production of viral videos instead.
