Meet Your Match: Microsoft Launches Follow-Up To Smoked By Windows Phone Challenge

Microsoft really seems to enjoy giving users of competing products a few challenges to convince them to switch to its own tools: not only does the company want you to Bing It On, but Microsoft now also wants you to Meet Your Match. This new initiative is the follow-up to the (not always uncontroversial) Smoked by Windows Phone campaign Microsoft started at CES earlier this year.

In the Smoked by Windows Phone challenge, users had to try to finish certain tasks faster than Microsoft employees using Windows Phone. While this didn’t do much to increase Windows Phone sales, it definitely created quite a bit of buzz around the product.

Now, Microsoft is following this up with a new set of challenges under the “Meet Your Match” moniker. According to Microsoft, this is a different take on the “Smoked” challenges. The focus now isn’t just on how Windows Phone 8 on devices like the Lumia 920 allows user to finish tasks faster than on other operating systems, but also on “why it’s better, easier, more useful, and more fun. The soul of Smoked – a side-by-side comparison of us vs. the other guys – hasn’t changed, but now it’s about why our phones and features are a better match for you, no matter who you are or what you’re into.”

Just like with Smoked by Windows Phone, Microsoft plans to take these new challenges on tour around the world, but it will also feature it in malls and Microsoft Stores across the U.S., UK, France and Germany. Microsoft will also run a major digital advertising campaign around these challenges and it’s already featuring a number of YouTube videos that show people meeting their match in Windows Phone 8.