“IE Sucks!” Microsoft Acknowledges Haters, Attempts to Woo Them

This post is part of Rassak’s “YouTube Tuesdays Plus” featuring mini critiques of product and service videos (plus other digital brand experiences). New on Tuesdays. Don’t miss one, subscribe.

I am a a fan of this campaign from Microsoft. The idea is that while you might have discounted Microsoft’s web browser Internet Explorer in recent years, it’s really time to take another look. The center of the campaign is a website called “The Browser You Loved to Hate.”

It’s smart for Microsoft acknowledge that people have not exactly been enamored with Microsoft’s browser of late. Just look at the blue line:

Creating a campaign-specific website (sometimes called a “microsite”) is often a great idea. You are freed from the branding, informational and navigational constraints/demands of the larger corporate site—and you can focus on just the message you need to get across for your campaign.

For starters you can use the web address itself to start communicating. “Browseryoulovedtohate.com” is fun to click on and read— and it sets the stage for what Microsoft is trying to say. I also really like the navigation on this site. There are only three items to choose from the top menu—already a feat of restraint. And Microsoft eschews the standard “Features | Benefits | Blah Blah” approach for the much more clever and engaging “Curious? | It’s Good Now | No, Really“. The navigation is itself delivering a message.

Another clever part of this campaign is that it is targeted to different audiences in different ways. A key audience in the browser wars are developers. They tend to recommend (or not) technology to less tech-savvy people in their lives. They also develop websites and apps for (or don’t) for browsers. If enough developers decided not to support a certain browser… that would not bode well for the browser.

Here’s a really cool, highly targeted video that’s part of the campaign, aimed at developers. Thanks to developer extraordinaire Eric Del Sesto, VP of product at Frontier Communications, for sending in this video which kicked off my research into the larger campaign  I love this video. Microsoft is being honest, open, even vulnerable in this video. That can only help them.

P.S. did you find the there’s a cool easter-egg-like fake website mentioned in the video?