Seeing is BelievingThe overall goal was to drive sales, but specifically we had to generate excitement and demand among influential, tech-savvy, high net worth individuals, by providing product education and creating understanding of its depth. For this group, “‘seeing is believing” and they needed to see the product and be given strong reasons to purchase. These individuals would then become our product evangelists within their peer group. Importantly Microsoft also had a secondary goal of engaging the industry and Microsoft partners in the project.We were targeted to achieve 50,000 entries to the Bonanza, where we actually achieved 75,000 and to gain over 55% awareness over the launch, where we actually achieved 77%. Sales of the Telegraph on the first Sat increased by 9,000 and a separate ‘win one of 3 home office solutions’ prize draw within the paper received 49,000 respondents.

The key idea is that tech-savvy, high net worth individuals use newspaper supplements interactively, to help form their own opinions on complex issues.So we used this medium to create an opportunity for them to eXPlore Windows XP; learn about it for themselves, allow them to experience its benefits and get excited about the new product.

To start engaging our target audience and alerting them to our project, we ran a series of teaser advertisements announcing the supplements and $1m XP Digital Bonanza.A series of 3 newspaper supplements over consecutive Saturdays allowed exploration through the detailed, imaginative editorial. The first supplement guided readers through the product and its key benefits, the second centred around Digital entertainment and the third Business and communications, giving our target relevant reasons to eXPlore. We gave them in-depth independent articles about the product with tips, hints and how to’s, interviews with Microsoft and their partners and case studies of early adopters.An interactive CD facilitated the next level of exploration. The first supplement contained a CD featuring key Windows XP benefits and demonstrations, allowing our target to explore some of the many ways in which Windows XP would give them significantly better performance than their current product. To incentivise exploration of the CD, it contained vital information on how to enter the $1m Bonanza.Other interactive elements were; an invitation to see a preview webcast of Robbie Williams live, £50 cashback on purchase, details of more information on the Microsoft.com and partner websites, the chance to win ‘one of three home office solutions’ prize draw all building awareness and excitement of the launch.

The $1m Bonanza integrated Microsoft’s partners, they donated digital equipment as prizes and were featured within the supplements. Each week there were questions to answer in order to win the digital equipment. The Bonanza was held on-line at MSN.co.uk, where there was also further XP messaging.We used an integrated package of “old” and “new” media to allow our target audience to explore Windows XP and interact with its new features and benefits. Over 75,000 people joined in our $1m Bonanza and the launch was judged a major success:“The telegraph supplements and integrated digital bonanza allowed our core target of tech-savvy, high net worth individuals to really get under the skin of the Windows XP product and was a significant element in what has been the biggest success we’ve enjoyed since Windows launched” Tanya Shirlow, Microsoft. We identified the key target audience insight driving this campaign – the need for tech-savvy high net worth individuals to explore a product before they make it their own – and how media could facilitate that exploration.The 2 key elements were:- identifying a medium used by our audience to help them form their opinions, and leveraging that relationship to the full- creating a mechanic to allow them to interact with Windows XP, to explore and become familiar with its features and benefits and get excited about the new productWe approached the Telegraph newspaper with the idea for a series of interactive supplements, and persuaded them to allow us to leverage the full range of their journalistic expertise, production skills and of course the value of their well-respected brand.Creating the $1m Digital Bonanza was a complex process. We liaised with 7 Microsoft partners, the client, their MSN colleagues, plus co-ordinated help from Microsoft’s 5 other communication agencies, working together to create a mechanic that communicated the product’s key features and provided an incentive to trial. The huge sampling device put Windows XP into the hands and minds of some of the UK’s most influential tech-savvy high net worth individuals - key early adopters of new technology. This submission stands out because we created a brand new media opportunity which used a static, traditional, paper-based medium to facilitate eXPloration of a high-tech, interactive software system. The great thing about this campaign was the way in which it circumvented usual advertising convention – telling people about a new product and why they should want it – by creating an opportunity for the product to earn their respect. The busy, tech-savvy, high net worth group, who make up the Windows XP launch audience needed to eXPerience its features and benefits for themselves. We created an opportunity for real interaction, and incentivised the target to start that process. And we made it multi-layered by using a carrier media vehicle which research demonstrated our target already had huge respect for.And it should be a winner because it was a winner for Microsoft; Our approach produced over 75,000 entries to the $1m Digital Bonanza, spectacular uplifts in awareness and likelihood to buy, and contributed to the outstanding sales performance of 17m copies sold worldwide in the first 3 months.

We identified the key target audience insight driving this campaign – the need for tech-savvy high net worth individuals to explore a product before they make it their own – and how media could facilitate that exploration.The 2 key elements were:- identifying a medium used by our audience to help them form their opinions, and leveraging that relationship to the full- creating a mechanic to allow them to interact with Windows XP, to explore and become familiar with its features and benefits and get excited about the new productWe approached the Telegraph newspaper with the idea for a series of interactive supplements, and persuaded them to allow us to leverage the full range of their journalistic expertise, production skills and of course the value of their well-respected brand.Creating the $1m Digital Bonanza was a complex process. We liaised with 7 Microsoft partners, the client, their MSN colleagues, plus co-ordinated help from Microsoft’s 5 other communication agencies, working together to create a mechanic that communicated the product’s key features and provided an incentive to trial. The huge sampling device put Windows XP into the hands and minds of some of the UK’s most influential tech-savvy high net worth individuals - key early adopters of new technology.