The Story
In the world of Search, Microsoft has long been—remarkably—the underdog, a virtual unknown. So, in 2005, they came to us with a challenging request: develop a buzz campaign for their search engine, Live Search, the #3 product in a category not exactly known for high excitement.
The Work
We set about to create a dynamic web experience, which would not be supported by any advertising.
Our solution was to personify the search experience, creating a virtual librarian of sorts. Except this wouldn’t be your typical librarian. She’d know anything and everything, anticipating questions even before you formed them.
After filming 600 responses, and linking them to literally millions of keywords, we introduced the world to Ms. Dewey.
Without a cent in advertising support, our expectations were low. We hoped for 200,000 visitors.
We beat them, to say the least.
Daily traffic to the site soon outpaced VW.com. All told, over 25 million people visited the site. Hundreds of news stories were generated, along with thousands of blogs.
Ms. Dewey was a gamble for the client. But it was one that paid exceedingly well.
© 2011 School of Thought, LLC.