Microsoft’s UK division, recently hired the hilarious David Brent (who played the lead in the original Office series) to conduct an employee training video where he reprised his role as an incompetent management consultant. In the video Brent, not only offers his own unique take on some of Microsoft’s retention policies, but also starts begging for a job once he learns that Microsoft employees have the potential to make over 40,000 pounds per year (about $75,000 US). Brent made two videos for Microsoft and in total there is almost 40 minutes of unique content created. After watching both training films, I feel like I got to see an undiscovered epidsode of the Office.
I originally saw the videos on Adfreak and while the video was supposedly leaked to the internet, I can’t help but wonder if it was intended for the blogosphere to see the entire time. Microsoft has always been very progressive in the way that they approach bloggers and of all the companies out there, I think that they know how to utilize the blogosphere better then anyone. Whether it was the three weeks of pre-hype on their UPMC product or their latest Zune rumors, Microsoft seems to understand that bloggers would rather speculate then report on real news and have done a great job of using this fact against us. This doesn’t mean that they’ve gotten a free pass from criticism, but it does mean that they’ve been at the forefront of marketing for a long time.
The release of Microsoft’s training video is what I believe the future of television will look like. For a number of years, there has been a lot of chatter about the DVR destroying ad based television. In the Washington Post this weekend, there was a great article that suggested that this really isn’t the case. Part of the reason why is that DVRs allow people to watch more TV, but also that marketers are finding new ways to reach consumers.
In looking at the future of ad supported television, I believe that we are going to see two trends. The first is the emergence of couch commerce. TiVo Chairman Mike Ramsey first made mention of couch commerce in 2000. The idea behind it is that you enable consumers to purchase something with the click of a remote and earn commission on what they buy. As targeted advertising becomes more effective, I believe that we’ll see a day where you can buy a birthday present during commercial breaks on your favorite shows and order pizza’s during halftime of your favorite football game. By enabling consumers to search, explore and purchase real goods with the click of a remote, I believe that it will revolutionize the television advertising business by making the studios middlemen instead of just an advertiser.
I also believe that we’ll see product placement advertising on a new scale. By product placement I don’t mean that we’ll see things show up for a minute or two, but rather that the marketing agencies will represent the new studios. Using Microsoft’s training video as a good example, they were able to create a very entertaining branded experience with limited expenses. While the production quality might not be good enough for TV, with people being used to that amateur quality on YouTube, I believe that the quality of this video is fantastic for the internet. Because Microsoft didn’t have to worry about making distribution agreements with the cable companies, the studios, the satellite providers, etc., they were able to focus on making a quick funny video and could then release it inexpensively on the net for anyone to see. As online video continues to gain in popularilty, I believe that more companies will begin making their own original content above and beyond the long form commercials that we’ve seen to date. It may take time for the marketing agencies to catch onto this trend and it may take time to convince more companies to engage in marketing this way, but it’s not far fetched to think that Microsoft could create their own version of The Office and have it be a hit online. If your production cost are controlled by cheap cameras and cheap editing software, a single company could produce an entire sitcom with a tenth of the expense of what it costs to make television today. While YouTube currently is the leader in online video sharing, the first one to enable companies to broadcast directly to the TV will be a huge winner in the future of ad supported television.