Comments on: Microsoft admits extremely viral “Gears of War” commercial was unintentional

By: EyeAm

EyeAm — Sun, 13 May 2007 17:57:19 +0000

Microsoft was no doubt helped here by MEGADETH, who wrote and recorded the song “Gears of War” for the game and signed on to help promote XBOX…

If you haven’t heard it, download it free from here:
http://www.megadeth.com/gow/gears_of_war.mp3

It’s on their new album, “United Abominations”, hitting stores this week!
http://www.megadeth.com

By: Blog Business Summit » Marketers Take Note: MS Gears of War Admission Illustrates ROI of Community Marketing Over Attempts at Virality

Fri, 11 May 2007 16:38:23 +0000

[...] recent admission by Microsoft’s marketing group that the tremendous community reaction to their “Mad World” TV spot for the game Gears [...]

By: mutednoise » Gears of War: The Mashup Phenom

mutednoise » Gears of War: The Mashup Phenom — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:15:31 +0000

[...] download charts at iTunes and launched a slew of user generated remixes, mashups, and homages. As Long Zheng writes on the istartedsomething blog it was a marketers wet dream. Mich Matthews is the Senior Vice President of Central Marketing at [...]

By: Matthew Reinbold

Matthew Reinbold — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:10:53 +0000

Planning for customer engagement does seem to be incredibly cold and calculating. It also seems to miss the point. People didn’t send time on mashups because the saw the commercial and thought “Wow, what a great brand to be associated with”. They contributed the time and effort the did because the commercial resonated with them. In the ad we see a war torn city. We hear the melancholy rendition of ‘Mad World’. Almost inevitably one’s mind draws parallels to our own troubled world. The song and images speak to our own fears and insecurities in a troubled world. Finally, the commercial fades out with the avatar of ourselves firing back at seemingly impossible darkness. What happened? Did he survive?

Mich can share all the information she wants with the customer. If all that’s there is something more to buy the effort will fail. The information must be an experience that reveals something more about ourselves.

By: » Mich Mathews On The Gears “Mad World” Ad Viral Success » InsideMicrosoft - part of the Blog News Channel

Fri, 11 May 2007 16:01:01 +0000

[...] Long Zheng shared this video of Mich Mathews talking at Microsoft’s Strategic Account Summit about the Gears of War “Mad World” ad that hit an amazing level of viral success. As she mentions, there were over 700 mashups with over a million views, all created by fans of the ad or the game, all of which helped the game sell an unprecedented number of copies. [...]

By: Jeff McNeill » Blog Archive » links for 2007-05-11

Jeff McNeill » Blog Archive » links for 2007-05-11 — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:20:45 +0000

[...] Microsoft admits extremely viral “Gears of War” commercial was unintentional May 2007 (tags: advertisement mashups) [...]

By: מחשבות בנושא טכנולוגיה ושיווק

מחשבות בנושא טכנולוגיה ושיווק — Fri, 11 May 2007 05:12:53 +0000

Mad World

Gears of War הוא המשחק הנמכר ביותר ל-XBOX 360 בתקופה האחרונה. אחת הסיבות להצלחה היא הפרסומת למשחק שהפכה

By: Mark Kitter

Mark Kitter — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:34:49 +0000

The speed at which marketing trends turn over is increasing. As consumers get wise to marketing teams that try and plan this as part of their strategy; do they turn off? Is part of the success of this because it was an accident? And Mitch gets paid how much for “accidents”?

By: Chris Webb: Publishing, Media, and Technology — It’s not just about books anymore

Fri, 11 May 2007 00:46:20 +0000

[...] Microsoft admits extremely viral “Gears of War” commercial was unintentional – istartedsomething (tags: marketing videogames microsoft gearsofwar video) [...]

By: Code.Red

Code.Red — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:39:10 +0000

I’ve never seen the ad before, and watched it before reading the second sentence of this post. I have to say something made it stand out to me right away. It’s a great commercial.