Wires Crossed #132 – Microsoft Back Pedals With Apple Ads + Google Street Chaos

Microsoft come up with a couple of marketing strategies – one that might work, one that backfires; carnage on the streets of Jakarta with Google car; and God-inspired Facebook post upsets Israeli politicians.

 

By Mike Wheeler

 

Microsoft Desperate Or Inspirational?
Microsoft will either hit the jackpot or go back to the drawing board quick-smart with its latest marketing plan. Its United States business is said to be offering a minimum $200 credit if consumers hand in their old iPad for a Microsoft Surface tablet. Not a bad idea when you look at Surface device sales almost scraping in at the one million mark while the number of iPads sold is close to hitting 20 million. Of course, trying to change the mind of a diehard Apple fan is almost impossible, but then again, maybe it’s the kind of strategy that will finally get the struggling Surface tablet on the consumer electronics map.

 

Microsoft Dumps Apple Ads
And speaking of Microsoft upping the ante, the company recently pulled some advertisements that ridiculed Apple and its latest smartphones. What makes this story interesting is that it stopped running the commercials due to the negative publicity they garnered on social networking sites. Two things to think about here: 1) Where is Microsoft’s guts in relation to standing by its marketing team and taking on a rival head-on? 2) In saying that, who was the numbskull who came up with the idea of ridiculing arguably the number one manufacturer of cool tech gear when their own products are hardly setting the world alight?

 

Facebook, God And Me
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid has infuriated opposition parliamentarians after posting a message to God on his Facebook page. It wasn’t so much the content as the timing that upset people with his rant going online ahead of the Judism’s holiest day of the year Yom Kippur. It was also a veiled swipe at fellow politicians. In the post he apologised to God for not, amongst other things, for not providing public transport on the Sabbath or initiating civil marriages. While the opposition showed a sense of outrage, the post itself got over 6,000 ‘likes’. That should tell them something.

                                                                                       

Google Driver Causes Chaos
A Google car collecting data for the company’s Street View service caused havoc outside the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta but not having one accident, but three. The initial accident he allegedly caused was when he hit a parked minivan. Fearing that he might not be able to afford to pay for the damages, the Google driver fled, which resulted in him crashing into two more cars in separate incidents. Google is non-too impressed with the resulting carnage but has yet to state what will happen to the hapless driver. Suffice to say he won’t be driving for them again, but knowing the streets of Jakarta you have to wonder why Google would want to map them in the first place.