Last night on our way to a birthday party at the Derby Deli & Dueling Piano Bar – Lisa and I stopped in at The Shops at Mission Viejo mall to kill some time. Traffic from San Diego was a little hectic so I figured that some time spend doing some retail therapy might do some good.
As we walked into the mall I was confronted with the early signs of Christmas and while the prospect of walking the mall with “deck the halls” at my back brought a grimace to my face but the little kids running by the well lit displays made me remember what the holidays are all about.
Walking down the main corridor of the mall I saw a huge white banner that read “Microsoft Store – Now Open”. I guess I have been disconnected from the platform for quite a while because I did not even realize that Microsoft had store but I have heard so many great things about Windows 7 I just had to check it out. I half expected the store to be a bland uninspiring cheap knockoff of an Apple Store, but WOW was I in for a surprise.
From the moment you first step through the door you can feel it, something is special, something is electric in the air. So many smiling faces, so many people engaged and fully committed to the experience and NO I am not just taking about the employees the nearly sixty shoppers in the store were having a riveting experience interacting with what is clearly the future.
Words really can’t do the experience justice so here are some videos that I created on my new Kodak ZI8 in 1080p mode.
Project Natal is the next level of user interaction with a computer. I had not even heard about it, I guess like so many other things Microsoft it looks to be game and life changing.
We have all seen the previews of the interactive table but I actually had the chance to “interact” with it. The table uses 3D bar codes to determine what object has been laid down. I tried taking a picture of the bar code with my phone and displaying the picture to see if I could clone it, but no luck there.
Mid way through our visit the entire store broke out into song. Now I have seen this gimmick before at Coldstone Creamery and I know how they have been criticized in the media for it, but here it did not seem forced nor contrived, I would honestly say that this was the staff letting go, having some fun and not taking the brand all to seriously.
I was absolutely floored by this experience, Microsoft has made a bold move to capture new market share. I ordered a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate edition – I have been a hard core Mac person for the past five years, I completely bypassed the Windows Vista experience but something is telling me that I am at a precipice looking directly into the future. Oh, and I just canceled my order for the 27inch iMac quad, I need a little time to think it over.
Its easy to see that Microsoft primarily is a software company committed to changing the world through technical innovation and that Apple is a hardware company that is changing the world through design innovations. They need each other to push the limits of their own visions.
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Wow…deleting over 50 comments outing you as a paid blogger for MSFT. Tsk tsk…
Juche – he’s deleted a few, but most are still intact, you just have to hit ‘Previous Comments’ below as it only shows 50 at a time.
What an asshat. I guess you’ve never been to a western themed restaurant. Or even one of the larger chain places that have servers “suddenly break out in dance” when ever a specific song is played or at the bottom or top of the hour. Dumbass
So you expect someone’s gonna believe a bunch of underpaid retail employees “spontaneously burst into song”, huh? Good luck with that. BTW, I saw a herd of unicorns towing a rainbow up Broadway.
I hope Microsoft fires this bunch of losers. While they are dancing you see customers rob the store!
HAHAHA.. you made me laugh man.. question: how much gear did MSFT send you to write this bull.. come on man.. anyone stating that he/she cancels an iMac 27 because of Window 7 is just talking out of his butthole! I pity MSFT.. they are again trying to copy instead of coming up with innovative stuff.. tsk tsk tsk..
Wow, I am so embarrassed for those employees. Plus it’s so obivous that the customers in the store are all looking at them thinking “WTF?” (Btw, this is a Microsoft site isn’t it? LOL)
Juche – I have removed posts that have personal information and some rants that were just a whole bunch of f*ck you or accusing the girl at 2:14 in stealing.
I replied to this a few posts back.
So you have been a hard core Mac person for the past five years, and completely bypassed the Windows Vista experience while at the same time been actively involved as a Vista beta tester before it launched? http://www.bradslavin.com/2007/01/02/upgrading-to-vista/
Whats up with that?
OK – I’ll bite.
You mean to say that you just happened to have “my new Kodak ZI8 in 1080p mode” at the ready at the VERY moment these douchebages “broke out” into song?
At least you could have said that “I was taking shots of the chick with the big tits” when this ghey routine “broke out”.
“Its easy to see that Microsoft primarily is a software company to changing the world through technical innovation and that Apple is a hardware company that is changing the world through design innovations.”
Microsoft being innovative? It seems that one epic marketing fail after another is the only innovation they’ve mastered.
Get a Mac!
We had been in the store for a while, looking at the other demos and software. A few times the employees had bust out into a wild clap when someone purchased a computer and hell I was in the second store in the USA for the first time. WWYD. What would you do?
Testing and using are to very different things. One is work the other is choice.
How low can Microsoft go in order to desperately try and look anything resembling Apple..?
This whole blog is as bogus as a 90 yr. old trying to pull off a sexy bikini outfit.
The “me too” strategy from MS is really sad.
“WWYD. What would you do?”
Seriously?
Zoom in on the chick with the big tits. Not on the fat nerds like you did.
Hey “Brad” or “admin”, or whatever the hell name you decide to call yourself next time, care to explain why you conveniently haven’t bothered to explain a few pressing points?
* Brad/Wayne Slavin appear to work for a marketing website called Webheat.com with the same contact info under bradslavin.com’s WHOIS. Is it a coincidence that a post obviously written to look like a poor attempt at viral marketing was done by someone who works in marketing, or do you still claim you weren’t somehow pressed into pulling this stunt?
* You honestly think an entire store breaking out into a transparent, cheesy song and dance routing instead of helping customers “did not seem forced nor contrived” and “would honestly say that this was the staff letting go, having some fun and not taking the brand all to seriously”? Do you actually stand by this statement?
* You say you “have been a hard core Mac person for the past five years” and that you “completely bypassed the Windows Vista experience”. Why would you say that when, as pointed out, you claimed to be a beta tester for Vista earlier? That hardly sounds like ‘completely [bypassing] the Windows Vista experience’ to me.
* Why is it that the only places your email address appears to be displayed is on your website’s WHOIS?
* You made the following statement in an earlier post:
“But other than that zero affiliations with Microsoft, other than about 8 years ago I owned an IT consulting company and we sold Microsoft products and I still have some clients that need viruses removed and I charge for that. But direct or indirect compensation ZERO.”
Seeing as how your video descriptions and this post is laced, even supersaturated with obvious marketing language, and that you appear to work for a company that does marketing (Webheat), bearing of course the slogan ‘IGNITE YOUR SALES, do you really expect anyone to believe you when you say you have “zero affiliations with Microsoft”?
“Brad”, or whoever you are, you have some explaining to do.
How ridiculous, the dancing just seems to reinforce every Apple commercial ever run. It looks like a roomful of John Hodgmans… all the Microsoft employees easily have ten years and 50 pounds on the typical Apple store associate. I’m not sure if they’re trying to mimic the “spontaneous dancing” one finds at Texas Roadhouse Barbecue, but whatever it is, it’s creepy.
my god this is horrible. are they serious?!
I can’t help wondering if BradSlavin still thinks he pulled off a great stunt with this staged thing. How embarrassing. Then again, I have to assume he got paid to create this so-called viral-marketing, so maybe he really is the winner here. Still, it’s embarrassing.
It gets even better:
Brad Slavin appears to be related to Wayne Slavin of Netstumbler fame – they both appear under Netstumbler.com’s and Webheat.com’s WHOIS lists with the same zip codes, etc.
So Brad, are you just the idiotic child in the family who decided to do pathetically poor viral marketing instead of actually do something useful with your life?
can’t look… mustn’t look… THE HORROR
p.s. DOS64 + Fortran PowerStation 4.1 4evr!!!!!!!!@#!@!!
I noticed you’re listed as a doner to OpenBSD: http://www.openbsd.org/donations.html – “Brad & Wayne Slavin, WebHEAT.com”.
What made you turn into a corporate ass-kisser to Microsoft? They just wave a nice fat wad of cash in your face?
You missed a whole lot of other Unix related info about me…http://bsdatwork.com. My FreeBSD server farm days while I owned an ISP and my migration to OS X with the announcement that JKH started working at Apple. oh well… Life goes on.
Older brother, but still may be the idiotic child in the family
Only a complete imbecile or someone who has had a full frontal lobotomy could claim that a choreographed dance routine done by an entire store’s staff members “did not seem forced nor contrived”.
webheat.com is a web marketing company focused on ecommerce conversions. I have been really involved in conversion rate tracking and helping businesses gain higher ROI on their marketing spend.
“forced nor contrived” – You had to be there, one minute I am looking at a demo for some xbox wireless interface and the next minute the whole things starts. Watch the video I was standing next to the guy at the left hand side of the store before the eruption and because he was already working with a potential customer he did not join in..I was the one that walked away from him.
On the Vista Beta issue – please refer to http://www.tns.net an ISP and IT consulting company that I owned and we evaluated ALL Microsoft software at the company, the guys in the field were going to have to support it..and god knows that on day one when it comes out there is some joker who has reformatted his hard drive and now wants to connect to the office network again.
Email address on a website – woops, I figured that having the bradslavin.com and links to linkedin, twitter, facebook would be enough… Next time I will attach an email address to the contact section…. Shit I also forgot my myspace account. Damn.
I am filled with purple prose - You don’t have to like my writing style but don’t for a moment believe that it was insincere about what I said.
“Brad”, how long are you going to keep this up for? The internet’s discovered you’re a shill for Microsoft (either because you were paid or because you’re simply an idiot who writes ass-kissing blog posts), and we hate your astroturfing guts. Most people would realize that this is a good time to take a long break from blogging so people forget about your blunder.
You know, for someone who claims to know about marketing, you don’t seem to know that when you fuck up badly you’re supposed to shut up and shuffle your mess under the carpet quietly, lest it be bad PR.
For someone who has been hard core mac just wondering why so much of the work on your brad-slavin.com site was produced in Adobe Photoshop CS Windows?
In the end you where so floored by the experience of seeing people clap along to a song that it made you choose to switch back to Windows? All of this setup seems too professional for you to be someone that makes that kind of knee jerk reaction.
This is the usual crap from Microsoft. They can’t do something better than the Apple Stores so they mimic them so average joe shopper can’t tell the difference. Same as they’ve done with Vista and Windows 7, it was all about how it looked and not about standout features.
“You don’t have to like my writing style but don’t for a moment believe that it was insincere about what I said.”
Then how about posting a pic of your W7 Ultimate receipt?
Ooops!
I missed this: ” I ordered a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate edition ”
WTF? They had the boxes in the video you shot?
Were you not “moved” enough to buy it in the store? Did you have to hit NewEgg??
Douche.
Dell receipt – http://www.bradslavin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/windows-7-upgrade-1.png
Never pay retail when you have a Dell coupon.
Thanks for the receipt!
So, why didn’t you buy from one of the ever-so-happy MS employees?
Didn’t the moment overtake you?
Big difference between the “moment overtaking” and “the mind letting go”. Never pay retail.
Are you SERIOUS?!?!? This is a complete JOKE!!!! You make all of us windows users look STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please stop NOW!!! I will be doing all in my power to switch my office computer as soon as possible to a MAC. How’s that for your brilliant advertising.
Instead of trying to come up with new ways to hypnotize us into using your regurgitated crap (also known as marketing), how about actually producing a set of products that actually work. Then I might not consider moving to a mac. After all, what reason would there be to.
Oh, I forgot. That would require some actual use of the brains at Microsoft. Unbelievable…
Viral campaign – yawn! This is the lamest excuse for MS enthusiasm since Balmer did his monkey run around the stage.
Oh, Brad, how you make me laugh:
“A few times the employees had bust out into a wild clap when someone purchased a computer”
What a ‘hip’ marketing technique, Microsoft. That’s not embarrassing for the customers at all.
Microsoft is so out of touch for hiring you. Incredibly lame.
Sad… That’s what happens when companies who are not perceived as cool are trying to look cool anyway… Major fail.
By the way, glad to see you’re using wordpress. Convenient for MSFT to use open source stuff when they simply don’t have the right minds to build that stuff themselves, while they’re the first one on the line when it comes to bashing the open source world!
“Dell receipt – http://www.bradslavin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/windows-7-upgrade-1.png”
Just out of curiosity, how did you go a day into the future to take that screen shot? According to my calendar, November 19 has yet to happen, and it would have needed to for November 17 to be “(2 days ago)”. Photoshop much?
Wow.
I’d love to see the marketing meetings at Microsoft. After every one of these failed stunts, surely (surely?!) someone facepalms and swears that they’ll “never do that again”.
Then they do it again.
Dude, I’m embarrassed for you, Slavin. And for those poor MS employees. I’m not a fan of this blog and now I know I never will be. If you haven’t already, you’ve definitely jumped the shark. Hope MS paid you well, my friend.
At lease Lisa can rest knowing your BS can be detected a mile away so you’ll never get away with cheating. (Assuming she’s your sig. other)
If you bypassed vista then why is your receipt for an upgrade version?
Sadly microsoft’s PR juggernaut has a history of creating these “real people on the street” or “real people on the web”. They are quickly found to be frauds. Unlike their comp which use real people in real-life situations. Funny, for a “hardcore Mac” user, you have nothing to say about Apple, other than why the iPhone sucks. Hmmm. But hey, you have a lot of good promos for microsoft, back to vista even. Hmm. This site is fake & this guy is a shill
Later !
@Tim
Good eye on that. His system time could for some reason be set two days ahead, but that’s still stupid.
This guy is either a bought out corporate shill for Microsoft, or even worse, a moron who honestly thinks that a dance routine (presumably a do-it-or-be-fired one) by store employees is not “forced nor contrived” and actually thought he’d get a positive response from an idiotic blog posting written with blatant marketing-speak that reads like it comes out of the mouth of some drooling Microsoft fanboy.
Even worse, he seems to think that ‘any attention is good attention’, judging by how his response to all the (well-deserved) negative comments is to point out how many emails he got from YouTube and how many hits his Twitter account go. Even if a million people viewed the video, that doesn’t change the fact that nearly everyone was pointing and laughing in a ‘you’re a douchebag/moron’ sort of way, and in no way can be considered a good marketing campaign, let alone a passable one.
Possibly the most glaring piece of stupidity (or outright lie) from Brad is one of his latest Twitter posts where he claims he didn’t know what ‘astroturfing’ means. Strange, you’d think someone who claims to know even the basics of marketing would know that term, or at least heard of it.
If you were being ironic I’d have to say you laid it on a little too thick. But if this is how you really think/write?!
You don’t think MS copied the Apple stores? Genius bar/Guru bar?
Yikes.
Actually, I just thought of another possibility as to why Brad would make such a post: he wanted to purposefully give Microsoft bad PR and just happened to have a camera. For all we know he could be paid by Apple (or just an Apple fanboy) and writing this idiotic post in an attempt to make Microsoft look even worse by giving them negative attention (not that they needed it or that Apple’s any better).
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