A strong marketing effort behind Internet Explorer 8 right now seems to be hitting all the controversial buttons. First came “Browse for the better“, a US food donation program supported by IE8 downloads. Followed by Microsoft Australia’s “Ten Grand is Buried Here“, an online treasure hunting game exclusively for IE8 users. And most recently “Get the facts“, a feature comparison chart comparing IE8 to other browsers. If you agree with “no publicity is bad publicity”, then they sure got their money’s worth.
The Australian “Ten Grand is Buried Here” competition in particular drew a lot of criticism around its messaging towards users of browsers other than Internet Explorer 8 – telling the users to “get rid of it or get lost”. I agree with the view that the words used are very strong, but as a devoted Firefox user, I took no offense by it. But by judging from wild reactions, a lot of people were. Microsoft has since responded.
Earlier today, the messaging was briefly changed to “get lost in the hunt” which I’ve been told is the originally context of the message, but another inspection of the site tonight seems to indicate the message no longer targets different browsers. Instead, users of all browsers are encouraged to participate equally, whilst still encouraging the use of Internet Explorer 8.
Furthermore, the underlying concept of the competition appears to have also changed as it no longer states “a cleverly concealed webpage that only Internet Explorer 8 can view”, but now “a webpage you can view in Internet Explorer 8″. The wording appears to have been changed deliberately which would indicate that the hidden treasure will be viewable on all browsers. I’ve since asked Microsoft Australia to confirm this interpretation. This has been confirmed.
If this is true, then it could be quite the turning point for the competition. No longer could it be viewed as a marketing ploy to coerce people into using Internet Explorer 8, instead, a fun and and potentially extremely rewarding online puzzle game that encourages people to explore the web, sponsored by Internet Explorer 8. Something that users of any browser should be able to get behind.
Finally, if you’re keen on playing along then keep an eye out on forums threads like the one on Whirlpool who were quick to solve today’s first clue. The clue “3000 upside down” was solved as the URL prefix “www” as the number 3000 in roman numerals are notated by “MMM” which flipped became w’s.
P.S. The “it’s not as stupid as it sounds” text in the footer was always in context of the “tell a friend” messaging. It implies that telling your friends about this competition is not a bad idea since you might not have the chance to follow or solve all the clues yourself. Some people obviously misinterpreted that.
Update: Microsoft Australia’s Gianpaolo Carraro, the man behind this competition, blogs his thoughts and experiences over the reactions to this competition from around the internet.
Update 2: Microsoft provided the following statement regarding the new competition rules,
“We created the $10,000 Treasure Hunt competition to raise awareness and encourage trials of our new browser, IE8. Already, participation in the competition has been significant. The $10,000 Treasure Hunt competition is open to users of other browser to encourage a greater spirit of online community and to allow more people to participate. We look forward to announcing the winner.”
17 Comments
xaml
Consider that the anti-thesis.
http://img35.imageshack.us/i/10000buried.png/
HappyAndyK
I really dont see anything wrong with Microsoft running a Contest for promoting one of its own products !
Jared Spurbeck
Your sane and objective coverage of the controversy reminds me why I prefer your blog to that of other Windows Enthusiasts’. ^.^
Kostas
I love the “facts” page. Great laugh.
Matt Sharpe
This is stupid, they shouldn’t have changed it.
They could have changed the potentially offensive wording, but to back down on the whole point of the offer?
Jonathan Wong
Hmm… for a similar IE8 promotional contest being run in Singapore, you still need to use IE8 to play the game, but the reason is because the game actually takes you through various IE8 features that an user may find useful.
Basically, it’s like a short online quiz where you need to use IE8 features (like accelerators, visual search, and web slices) to answer the questions.
If you are living in Singapore, you are eligible to win prizes!
http://www.ie8challenge.com
Jeremy Hale
Personally, I am delighted to see IE8 re-joining the serious browser world–and Microsoft publish text anyway they wish. Although the point that the puzzle would be based on advanced feautres of IE8 only visible by actually using the browser was over seen by some that found the text to be too aggresive, it did a smashing job of creating buzz. So, from a pure advertising perspecitve, three thumbs up.
Dom
second clue is out!!!!!! ‘FbWiFnRg’ This is fun
Dazza
FbWiFnRg
FWFR and bing.
Search bing in FWFR?
Yert
WIFI N Range is what I read it as (maybe an IP address?). Dunno what the Fb would be for.
Bing pulls up Four Word Film Review.
Trevor
Nice article. It has been quite funny reading the reactions and the responses. This is one of the better ones that I have come accross http://tengrandburiedhere.com/winner.html
Abderrahmane TAHRI JOUTI
FbWiFnRg : FW FR bing
FW: Ferris Wheel (from the name of the picture in Bing
)
dunno what’s FR, Keep Going
Abderrahmane TAHRI JOUTI
http://www.bing.com/fd/hpk2/FerrisWheel_ROW52276381.jpg
Vinay H V
370211931299 may be this is latitude longitude combination. But it leads to some china location.
Daniel Teixeira
searching on http://www06.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=370211931299
370211931299 = 7 x 313 x 168969389
Elias
I think the number is for an eBay item with ID 370211931299: Buried Treasures You Can Find: Over 7500 Locations in All 50 States.
Check it out: http://cgi.ebay.com/Buried-Treasures-You-Can-Find:-Over-7500-Locations -in-A_W0QQitemZ370211931299QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxq20090606?IMSfp=TL09060 61410001r25992
Also, the latest hint (an image) shows the town Outlook on the map. And the whole image is from Saskatchewan, Canada.. Someone pointed out that it maybe had something to do with the .SK domain TLD (even though that has nothing to do with Saskatchewan or Saskatchewan
)… BUT Outlook.SK leads to a bing.com search of “Outlook”….
Michael
“Earlier today, the messaging was briefly changed to “get lost in the hunt” which I’ve been told is the originally context of the message”
Oh come on, do you really expect us to believe that? There are probably few phrases in the Australian lexicon with such a clearly defined lack of ambiguity that ‘get lost’ has. Whomever told you that was simply lying to spin it positively.
Insulting an increasingly large portion of the internet using public in such a blatant way really is “as stupid as it sounds”, i’m afraid.
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