Hasta La Creative!

Apesar de estar longe de ser o browser favorito dos usuários de internet – fato tratado com bom humor em um comercial da própria marca – o Internet Explorer costuma ser foco de boas campanhas. Entre a mais recentes está um trailer de animação da Microsoft de Cingapura, criado para o Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2013. Nele, o navegador é personificado por Inori Aizawa, uma garota mágica, capaz de lutar contra vírus.

A história por trás da adoção da personagem pela Microsoft, é bem interessante e começa com uma série de ilustrações criadas por Danny Choo, personificando diferentes navegadores, com exceção do Internet Explorer. Foi aí que o estúdio de animes Collateral Damage Studios resolveu preencher a lacuna, imaginando como seria a personificação do navegador que todos amam odiar. O processo criativo é descrito aqui, e explica o conceito do “patinho feio” que se tornou um cisne.

Ele também é citado na apresentação de Inori em sua página no Facebook: ”Olá a todos! Meu nome é Inori e você pode me ver como a personificação do Internet Explorer. Quando eu era mais jovem, eu costumava ser uma garota desajeitada, devagar e estranha. Entretanto, assim como a história do patinho feio, as pessoas me disseram que eu realmente amadureci e mudei ao longo dos anos. Me sinto confiante em minhas habilidades agora, e estou ansiosa para mostrar a você o que eu posso fazer. Por que você não tenta me conhecer um pouco melhor?”. A mensagem é seguida por um link para o download do browser.

Como a incorporação do vídeo ora é permitida, ora é proibida, você o encontra aqui.

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Iniciando hoje, a campanha para o Xbox One apresenta o console como uma opção “tudo-em-um”, fazendo um convite para que os jogadores entrem na nova geração.

Além robôs gigantes, zumbis, carros esportivos e soldados romanos, o filme tem a presença de Steven Gerrard do Liverpool, e do ator Zachary Quinto como Spock, da franquia “Star Trek” de J.J. Abrams.

Antes assinando como “Jump in” nos comerciais do Xbox 360, agora a Microsoft trabalha o conceito “Jump ahead”.

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There isn't a public event that Apple and Samsung users can't spoil by fighting with each other, according to Crispin Porter + Bogusky's hyperbolic but still amusing campaign for the Windows Phone—which continues with the spot below, again directed by Roman Coppola and set to air Sunday during MTV's Video Music Awards.

Coppola directed the earlier spot, "The Wedding," which was a big success (more than 6 million YouTube views), and he brought back many of the same actors for "The Recital." In the new spot, Apple and Samsung users again jockey for position to get the best photos, and are soon ridiculing, head-butting and otherwise trying to take each other down. (On the plus side, at least they seem interested in the school play and aren't just falling asleep.) The spot pushes the Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixels and reinvented zoom, which apparently helps you get better pictures and also just be a nicer person.

There's less snappy dialogue this time, though it's a fun moment at the end when the woman who's literally spouting Apple's recent advertising copy gets thumped to the floor.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Microsoft
Spot: "The Recital"
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Rob Reilly
Executive Creative Director: Dan Donovan
Creative Directors: Dave Swartz, Dave Steinke
Associate Creative Directors: Paul Sincoff, Kyle Jones
Art Director: Jeff Hunter
Copywriter: Aaron Cathey
Integrated Head of Video: Chad Hopenwasser
Executive Integrated Producer: Sloan Schroeder
Senior Integrated Producer: Laura Keseric
Production Company: Directors Bureau, Los Angeles
Director: Roman Coppola
Executive Producers (Production Company): Lisa Margulis, Elizabeth Minzes
Producer (Production Company): Francie Moore
Director of Photography: Chris Soos
Postproduction: NO6LA, Santa Monica, Calif.
Visual Effects: Method, Santa Monica, Calif.
Executive Producer, Design: Robert Owens
Producer: Ananda Reavis
Editor: Jason McDonald
Music Company: JSM Music
Junior Music Producer: Chip Herter
Arrangers: Joel Simon, Doug Katsaros
Sound Design Company: Henry Boy, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sound Designer: Matthew Hedge

Com 19 anos de experiência e sendo um nome conhecido no meio após chefiar a divisão de Windows da Microsoft, Julie Larson-Green assumiu o comando do setor de Xbox One. O posto, que estava a cargo de Don Mattrick, foi repaginado e dará a Larson-Green o o controle de desenvolvimento da área – o que inclui jogos, música e vídeo.

A carreira da executiva deu uma guinada em um momento turbulento para a Microsoft com a chegada do Xbox One, mas alguns jogadores não conseguiram lidar bem com o fato de Larson-Green ser uma mulher.

A reação, expressada nos comentários abaixo, ecoa algumas das críticas que povoam as caixas de comentários do trabalho de Anita Sarkeesian em sua série Tropes vs. Women. O motivo do inconformismo varia entre a suposta falta de conhecimento da nova chefe até sua incapacidade, atrelada a seu sexo, também não comprovada.

Além do ódio

Larson-Green terá de enfrentar um dos maiores desafios da marca Xbox: a chegada de uma nova geração de consoles, já marcada por disputas agressivas no mercado. De início, a estratégia anunciada pela companhia foi um videogame com sistemas de DRM bem semelhantes a um PC. O plano era mudar os métodos de empréstimo de jogos e vendas de mídias usadas, além de exigir uma constante conexão com a internet e ter um preço de lançamento mais caro que o concorrente da Sony.

Nas palavras de Mattrick, as mudanças viriam em prol de um novo ambiente para os jogadores, uma experiência que se afasta quase por completo do que vemos atualmente nos consoles. Na prática, as decisões mal aceitas pelo público fizeram com que a Microsoft revisse as suas novas políticas. Atualmente, Mattrick está ocupando o posto de CEO da Zynga, desenvolvedora de jogos sociais como “CityVille” e “FarmVille”.

O objetivo de Mattrick na Zynga, segundo Mark Pincus, fundador da empresa, é ajudar a empresa a realizar seu potencial máximo. O desempenho recente da companhia, que fechou recentemente o estúdio OMGPOP (responsável por “Draw Something”) e finalizou as atividades de algumas de suas divisões, levou o site Dorkly a criar uma carta de apresentação para Mattrick, nos moldes do humor típico do portal.

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Microsoft vents its inferiority complex with Apple yet again—by humiliating Siri—in this new spot from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, following a similar ad last month that got more than 5 million views on YouTube. The new spot compares Dell's XPS 10 tablet to the iPad. Microsoft is still smarting about the "Mac vs. PC" ads, to judge by the tone of these ads, which is a shame, because that Dell tablet looks cool enough to stand on its own. And if you think this is harsh, I wouldn't be surprised if future ads take potshots at the Sony Xperia after what happened at E3 this year.

With each new announcement about the upcoming launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft seems to be making a few more enemies.

Gamers and industry observers have become increasingly skeptical of the next-gen gaming console thanks to features that seem catered far more to piracy-paranoid game publishers than to game buyers. For example, Microsoft said today that users won't be allowed to play games if their consoles are disconnected from the Internet for more than 24 hours. (Laughably, the brand says you can still "watch live TV" while disconnected, though I'm not sure defaulting to a cable box is a great selling point.) Reddit's Gaming community has exploded today with posts mocking the Xbox One's unpopular features and requirements. As of this writing, 23 of the top 25 posts on the Gaming subreddit are anti-Microsoft (check out several of the best after the jump).

It's not all a reaction to the required-connection announcement, either. Despite Microsoft's assurances that you'll be able to turn off the motion-detecting Kinect's microphone and camera, gamers still see the mandatory peripheral as an potential invasion of their privacy. Players also weren't thrilled to hear that the ability to buy or sell used games will be determined by the game publishers, who might require you to pay full price when you install one of their titles, even if you buy the disc used.

The infuriated response by gamers is definitely a PR nightmare for Microsoft, but here's the real question: Will Sony manage to keep looking like a hero? So far, Sony has revealed relatively few details about the PlayStation 4, and there's a good chance that as gamers learn more about Sony's own anti-piracy measures and hardware requirements, much of the brand's recently garnered goodwill could erode. Or as today's most popular Reddit Gaming post puts it, "Don't screw this up, Sony, and you will own the next generation."

A forensic artist drawing a picture of a baby Clydesdale shipping its pants? Now that would be a viral commercial supernova.

Dove, Budweiser and Kmart all rank near the top of Unruly Media's just-released list of the most viral commercials of 2013 so far. Those brands are joined by Pepsi MAX, Evian, Ram Trucks and more, as Unruly celebrates the commercials with the most pass-along value through the first five months of the year. And as the numbers show, it's been a very strong year for online video, as compared to 2012.

See the full list at this link:

The 10 Most-Viral Ads of 2013 (So Far)

Unruly counts shares of videos across social media—a metric that is often at odds with sheer view counts. For example, Microsoft's "Child of the '90s" video for Internet Explorer would place fourth on this list in terms of YouTube views (with more than 34 million), but its approximately 630,000 shares are good for only ninth place.

Conversely, Kmart's "Ship My Pants" and Budweiser's "Brotherhood" spots both have fewer YouTube views than Evian's "Baby & Me" or Pepsi MAX's "Test Drive"—but they rank higher on this list because of better share rates. (The top video on the list, however, leads in both views and shares.)

We left a couple of videos from Unruly's list off this one—including the Biting Elbows music video and the Miami Heat's Harlem Shake clip—to focus on brand advertising rather than more entertainment-based content.

Acabou agorinha o evento da Microsoft que anunciou o Xbox One, e o vídeo acima resume tudo o que você precisa saber por enquanto.

Apesar da surpresa do nome, ele faz sentido pela estratégia da empresa, que já vinha sendo cantada há tempos: promover o aparelho como a central de entretenimento da sua casa, com camera e comandos de voz.

Além disso, foi anunciado que o Xbox One contará com 15 franquias exclusivas (8 delas inéditas). Trailers de “Forza 5″, “Quantum Break” e “Call of Duty: Ghosts” foram mostrados, com alguns discursos de avanços na tecnologia e melhores gráficos.

O vídeo abaixo, algo como um manifesto do Xbox One, traz até Steven Spielberg e J.J. Abrams como porta-vozes. Spielberg, aliás, anunciou no evento que irá produzir uma série de TV live action da franquia “Halo”.

A data de lançamento do console não foi definida, apenas um vago: “no fim do ano”.

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Gape in awe at these impressive "Windows 8 Training Camp" videos that dramatize product benefits through the goofiest of competitions. In "Makeup," three women have 10 seconds to apply cosmetics, with results that are hilariously mixed. In "Piano," we are introduced to two men who balance work and play by tickling the ivories while playing pingpong with their buttocks. They’re actually quite talented. And in "Watermelon," three skilled martial artists carve and suggestively finger some watermelons. Microsoft told bloggers the online-only videos were created specifically for Asian markets and were only posted to the global Youtube channel by mistake, but we're not buying it. While I don't speak Korean or Chinese, commenters who are native speakers of both have said on The Verge' that the actors in the ads are actually speaking a fake language that's just gibberish, which makes you wonder if the whole odd-Asian vibe and vague backstory for the spots are signs that these were intended to be viral videos from day one. More spots after the jump.

If smartphone advertising has a recurring theme, it's that the users of rival products are idiotic obsessives. Samsung made that point with its campaign poking fun at Apple fanboys. Now, Microsoft is making a similar point about both Apple and Samsung fans. The spot below for Windows Phone, from Crispin Porter + Bogusky and director Roman Coppola, takes place at a wedding, where half the crowd has iPhones and half has Galaxies. The bickering starts immediately, and soon escalates into a nasty brawl. A couple of attractive caterers, meanwhile, don't see what all the fuss is about. Can't we all just get along, and agree to buy Windows Phones? Of course, Microsoft would kill, or at least maim, for the kind of smartphone brand loyalty that the other two companies have. For now, the thinking seems to be, If you can't beat them, at least beat them up. And by the way—yes, unfortunately, Apple body tattoos do exist.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Microsoft Windows Phone
Spot: "The Wedding"
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Rob Reilly
Executive Creative Director: Dan Donovan
Creative Directors: Dave Swartz, Dave Steinke, Bill Roden
Art Director: Robbin Ingvarsson
Copywriter: Waldemar Wegelin
Executive Integrated Producer: Aaron Kovan
Senior Integrated Producer: Laura Keseric
Junior Integrated Producer: Mike Borell
Production Company: Directors Bureau, Hollywood, Calif.
Director: Roman Coppola
Executive Producers (Production Company): Lisa Margulis, Elizabeth Minzes
Producer (Production Company): Mary Livingston
Postproduction: Method, Santa Monica, Calif.
Editorial Company: NO6LA, Santa Monica, Calif.
Executive Producer, Design: Crissy DeSimone
Producer: Leslie Tabor
Editor: Kevin Zimmerman        
Junior Music Producer: Chip Herter        
Group Account Director: Devin Reiter
Content Management Supervisor: Lynn Harris
Content Supervisor: Kelly Olech
Content Managers: Casey Wilen, Andrea Cadloni
Business Affairs: Katherine Graham Smith
Group Planning Director: Jason De Turris
Junior Cognitive Anthropologist: Tiffany Ahern