The Story
Microsoft’s developer community is the heart and soul of the company. Lose the developers, and you’re done. It’s as simple as that.
The other challenge is that both the developers and Microsoft know that it’s effectively the only game in town. If you’re going to develop for a PC, you almost certainly need the Microsoft toolkit, Visual Studio. Microsoft works hard to maintain the relationship with these developers, but the potential for backlash is high, why we had to tread carefully.
Awareness certainly wasn’t the goal. Reminding the community that Microsoft is, at its core, a number (albeit a high number) of developers just like, was. We wanted to show some empathy. We knew what late nights were like. We knew what deadlines were like. And we certainly knew what Red Bull was, as coolers of the stuff can be found on every floor.
The Work
Over three years, we produced dozens, perhaps hundreds, of communications on behalf of
Visual Studio. Since this was a fairly narrow market, we got to take a few liberties with the campaign, creating web films that were comparatively edgy.
The first campaign, 400 Differences, showed an company filled with developers struggling to overcome the every day challenges. Like the project manager who wouldn’t take no for an answer. A midnight run to the fridge was another web film we created, based on an actual developer story, where the developer opens the door to reveal…only a tub of margarine. Hey, it’s still got calories, right?
A year later, to create something truly distinctive, we created another campaign based on snapshots of developer life. The twist was that we used video game characters, like the guys from Halo, as our actors.
These were among the most successful campaigns in Microsoft’s history, especially among the developer community.
© 2011 School of Thought, LLC.