Seriously, Is Nadella Familiar w/ Paul Allen & Steve Ballmer?

[Laura Knotek]

And why does everyone assume I meant force them? Player's agents would never allow their player to promote a product for free.

The impressions I've gotten do far is that none of the celebrities paid by Microsoft ever liked the products. They just liked the money. They used iPhones the first chance they got.

At this point in time I doubt if any NBA players would actually prefer Windows Phone rather than iPhones or Samsung Galaxy.

 

[Trill Gates]

LeBron certainly isn't low-income. Did you ever see his house?

I'd expect more NBA players prefered Samsung rather than Apple in the past because basketball players generally have large hands, since they're tall guys. Prior to the 6+, iPhones would've been tiny to basketball players.

No, the fan demographic of the NBA consists primarily of middle and low income consumers. The millions of FANS is who Samsung sought, they could care less if off camera LBJ was using iOS. On camera is all that matters in this type of marketing.

The impressions I've gotten do far is that none of the celebrities paid by Microsoft ever liked the products. They just liked the money. They used iPhones the first chance they got.

At this point in time I doubt if any NBA players would actually prefer Windows Phone rather than iPhones or Samsung Galaxy.

That's the thing in marketing, they don't have to truly "like" the product for it to be successful. Do you really think Eminem drives a Chrysler 200? Or do you think that reasonably priced car is directed at the income levels of his avid fan base?

After two seasons, Caroline Forbes betrayed us and ditched her Lumia 920 for the HTC One. It hurts, it hurts so much. Please, no more celebrities. I can't take the heartache.

The important thing would be did she help sell Lumia 920's for the time she was a user? If the answer is yes then it was a success for Nokia/Microsoft. It's only a blunder when they're caught using competitor products while being paid to endorse something else. As we saw with CNN and the SP3. And even with these blunders it overall in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter. The Surface is now the official tablet of the NFL and it's seen by hundreds of millions of viewers every week. Even if some players use IPads at home, Microsoft is still benefitting from the NFL deal. Surface sales are up, WP sales are stagnant.

The important thing would be did she help sell Lumia 920's for the time she was a user? If the answer is yes then it was a success for Nokia/Microsoft. It's only a blunder when they're caught using competitor products while being paid to endorse something else. As we saw with CNN and the SP3. And even with these blunders it overall in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter. The Surface is now the official tablet of the NFL and it's seen by hundreds of millions of viewers every week. Even if some players use IPads at home, Microsoft is still benefitting from the NFL deal. Surface sales are up, WP sales are stagnant .

 

[tgp]

The Surface is now the official tablet of the NFL and it's seen by hundreds of millions of viewers every week. Even if some players use IPads at home, Microsoft is still benefitting from the NFL deal.

Even when the announcers call them iPads? ;-)

 

[Trill Gates]

Even when the announcers call them iPads? ;-)

Ya as much of a face palm moment that is for Microsoft fans like us, it generally hasn't mattered to Microsoft. They're finally making a profit with the Surface hardware and their quarterly gains are impressive. Sure the Surface will never dethrone the iPad, but it doesn't need to for Microsoft to make huge profits.

I despise the fact that this is such an effective mass marketing tactic, as it reminds me how unopinionated and docile large swaths of humanity are, but if that helps WP, I say have at it.

Still, I feel almost all such efforts have backfired so far. Seeing any celebrity use an iProduct one week after their contract with MS expires is simply counter productive. I agree with Laura and tgp that there must be some authenticity involved, if it is to have any chance of helping rather than doing even more harm.

We can hate how zombie-like the average mainstream consumer is , but as you said they can only help WP. Lets be optimistic and say an NFL/NBA campaign doubled Windows Phone users in the US from the 6.2 million to 12.4 million in one year's time. You know how much that would help some of our app woes?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

At this point in time I doubt if any NBA players would actually prefer Windows Phone rather than iPhones or Samsung Galaxy.

You can't go around implying NBA players are dumb! Or are you saying Windows Phone users are dumb?

 

[tgp]

You can't go around implying NBA players are dumb! Or are you saying Windows Phone users are dumb?

She didn't say either. It appears to me that you're the one who said it! :winktongue:

Neither are dumb. It's a matter of preference.

 

[Trill Gates]

She didn't say either. It appears to me that you're the one who said it! :winktongue:

Neither are dumb. It's a matter of preference.

Even if NBA players would personally prefer iOS or Android, doesn't mean their opinion could be changed for the right price. I'm a die-hard Chevy guy but if Ford was paying me to push their products I'd happily oblige. We're underestimating how good of pitchmen so many pro athletes are. I/e Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson etc.

 

[tgp]

Even if NBA players would personally prefer iOS or Android, doesn't mean their opinion could be changed for the right price. I'm a die-hard Chevy guy but if Ford was paying me to push their products I'd happily oblige. We're underestimating how good of pitchmen so many pro athletes are. I/e Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson etc.

Well yes that's true. But it would take a lot more money to persuade an NBA player than it world take to persuade me!

Sent from whatever device I happen to be using today using Tapatalk

 

[Trill Gates]

Well yes that's true. But it would take a lot more money to persuade an NBA player than it world take to persuade me!

Sent from whatever device I happen to be using today using Tapatalk

True, but an NBA player a superstar player in particular have a much much bigger following of people than you or me combined. NBA players in particular more so than NFL players because people really do idolize them. People who otherwise wouldn't even bother listening to a Windows Phone commercial would at least stop and listen if their favorite player is in it. That's really what advertisers are after, your attention is everything.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Even if NBA players would personally prefer iOS or Android, doesn't mean their opinion could be changed for the right price. I'm a die-hard Chevy guy but if Ford was paying me to push their products I'd happily oblige. We're underestimating how good of pitchmen so many pro athletes are. I/e Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson etc.

But how do they guarantee the same thing doesn't happen as occurred with Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, et al? It would be another major embarrassment if the NBA players tweeted using their iPhones on their personal Twitter accounts, even if they did Windows Phone ads.

 

[Trill Gates]

But how do they guarantee the same thing doesn't happen as occurred with Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, et al? It would be another major embarrassment if the NBA players tweeted using their iPhones on their personal Twitter accounts, even if they did Windows Phone ads.

Well for starters the NFL and their players have highly competent marketing officers & directors to watch over and prevent those types of incidents and quickly correct them. As an example Bose is now the official headphone sponsor of the NFL and as a result the players are no longer allowed to be seen on camera wearing Beats by Dre. Beyond the actual sports the NFL and NBA are two of the best marketing/co-promotion companies in the world.

As for individual players guys like Peyton Manning aren't dumb, they understand basic marketing professionalism. Peyton Manning wont ever be seen eating Pizza Hut or Dominoes so long as he's being paid as a pitchman for Papa John's. This is what separates most pro athletes from pop stars, pro athletes have product endorsement in their job description. People like Gwen Stefani only hurt their record label when they screw up endorsement deals, so they unlike pro athletes have less of a concern because those screw ups don't hurt their personal bottom lines.

 

[TechmeIN64]

Endorsements are just that: endorsements. A noteworthy person is PAID to use a product to publicly use a product that they may or may not normally use. It doesn't matter at all if they like it, as long as they aren't making visibly obvious faces of disgust as their photo is taken with the product. If I was a 15 year old aspiring cornerback or ravid Seahawks fan and I saw Richard Sherman holding a 1520 (with his big hands) is his post Superbowl interview, you had better believe that I would want that phone a lot more. It doesn't matter if a few months later he tweets via the Twitter App for iOS because the target audience for these endorsements DOES NOT READ TECH BLOGS. They don't know that he Tweeted with an iPhone. Heck they probably don't even know what iOS is. People need to better understand how marketing works. Believing that MJ didn't get paid to wear Nike is a joke. Yeah and Michael Phelps willingly did those Subway commercials for free because he just really likes their sandwiches. Trill Gates is spot on with this.

 

[Laura Knotek]

This Forbes article makes some good points. Perhaps Microsoft would be better off avoiding these high-profile campaigns such as NFL/CNN/celebrities and instead choosing people who actually use and like its products to do ads.

 

[Trill Gates]

Endorsements are just that: endorsements. A noteworthy person is PAID to use a product to publicly use a product that they may or may not normally use. It doesn't matter at all if they like it, as long as they aren't making visibly obvious faces of disgust as their photo is taken with the product. If I was a 15 year old aspiring cornerback or ravid Seahawks fan and I saw Richard Sherman holding a 1520 (with his big hands) is his post Superbowl interview, you had better believe that I would want that phone a lot more. It doesn't matter if a few months later he tweets via the Twitter App for iOS because the target audience for these endorsements DOES NOT READ TECH BLOGS. They don't know that he Tweeted with an iPhone. Heck they probably don't even know what iOS is. People need to better understand how marketing works. Believing that MJ didn't get paid to wear Nike is a joke. Yeah and Michael Phelps willingly did those Subway commercials for free because he just really likes their sandwiches. Trill Gates is spot on with this.

Glad to see a fellow marketing literate on this thread finally! This type of proposed (and proven) marketing techniques is exactly what MSFT needs for the mainstream consumer who does not avidly follow Tech blogs and Journalism. The NFL deal got the Surface to be vigorously exposed on all NFL licensed networks: FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC and ESPN. Four huge networks all included in the NFL promotion deal. This has increased the Surface's exposure literally by a cumulative hundreds of millions PER WEEK. As a result we're seeing excellent quarter over quarter growth for Surface, compared the WP's stagnation.

 

[Trill Gates]

This Forbes article makes some good points. Perhaps Microsoft would be better off avoiding these high-profile campaigns such as NFL/CNN/celebrities and instead choosing people who actually use and like its products to do ads.

I adamantly disagree with the premise of that article which goes against all recent Surface sales performance data, Forbes doesn't cite any data for that matter. It's no coincidence that shortly after the NFL deal SP3 adoption has spiked the Surface into profitability for the first time in the product line's short history a iPad on CNN is only noticed by the journalists who specifically are employed to seek these minuscule faux pas out.

A product is only as good as its marketing, the only marketers dropping the ball (pardon the pun) is the Windows Phone marketing division. The Surface marketing campaign is yielding tangible results.