This stuff writes itself. At the grand opening of a new Windows Store in Seattle folks were camping out for most of the night only to stream in, breathlessly ready to partake in the one exciting product Microsoft could offer – a free concert by the Black Keys.
I’m not here to bash Microsoft’s actual products but gosh darn it of their marketing guys aren’t incompetent. Remember the strange, proto-softcore porn launch videos for Windows 7? Remember the “PC Hunter” ads? Microsoft’s marketing department, barring events where the Black Keys play for free, just can’t get people excited.
We saw two or three great Microsoft Research products just last week, yet they have to sink to live music to draw a crowd? Sure, the company doesn’t need to impress anybody with gimmicky hardware and splashy ads, but can they at least try to plan out a store launch that would make folks line up for more than just the blues rock stylings of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney?