Case Study

The Problem
Taking on the iPod may seem like a fool’s errand, but Microsoft has faith that its Zune digital music player is every bit as hip. But how to go about communicating that?

The First Step
Microsoft sought to exploit the Zune’s social networking buzz with an eight-week campaign based on a video that first ran on an arts Web site for Zune users, Zune-Arts.net, called Masks, that was a takeoff on the movie 300. The piece was created by New York animation duo Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura with oversight by Zune Arts curator, 72andSunny, Los Angeles/Amsterdam.

Distribution
From mid-November through January, Feed Company, Los Angeles, launched a three-phase campaign to get the video out. First, Feed Company hit Gen Y social networks, blogs and forums, and formulated messages to address each individual location.

Next, Feed Company sent Masks to video share sites and then put out a word-of-mouth campaign in the animation community on YouTube requesting influencers to ask their YouTube editors to include Masks on the site’s Film & Animation home page. The third phase saw a broadened reach highlighting the animation’s “Make love, not war” theme to a more general audience. The move garnered the video 200,000 views across seven to 10 sites in the sixth week after launch. Masks was subsequently selected as a featured You-Tube home page video during the first week of January.

The Results
In the eight weeks, Masks had more than 850,000 video views and 110 links to the video, including You Tube and MySpace. On its placement on YouTube alone, 561 users subscribed to the Zune Arts channel, 6,500 users marked Masks as a favorite and the video received more than 4,000 positive reviews.

BrandWeek [link]