Microsoft Kicks Off Server System Campaign

Microsoft launches an international, multi-million-dollar online and print ad campaign for its Windows Server System this week, highlighting individuals who work with the product and showing how it has helped them succeed at their jobs.

The case-study-oriented campaign first rolls out online and in U.S. information technology print publications, then makes its international debut around two weeks later.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will spend tens of millions of dollars on the campaign, which features hands-on staffers from the IT departments of enterprise and mid-level firms using the Windows Server System solutions.

“The message of the ad campaign is to brand the Winders Server System and convey a vision of integrated innovation in which server products have to work together,” said Valerie Olague, director of marketing for the system, at an informal lunch on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus last week.

Olague said Microsoft is highlighting individual customers it has been working with over time. Many of these customers were development partners for Windows Server 2003. The first ads for the campaign feature Motorola, Siemens, Toyota and Reuters.

Each ad will feature the photo and name of an individual staff member of the company that is the subject of the ad. According to Olague, all four of the companies have been able to consolidate their infrastructure and costs and get a handle on managing the complexity of their IT infrastructures.

Microsoft hopes the ad campaign will send the message that servers are part of the company’s core technology strategy.

The first set of ads focusing on the four global companies will run throughout the summer. A second set of ads focusing on about 30 mid-market names will follow. Olague said Microsoft did not pay any of the individuals or companies appearing in the ads.