Microsoft has recently launched a $300+ million ad campaign. The first two ads featured Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. It was immediately clear that the valley wags hated the commercials. Even Seth had some unflattering things to say about the campaign.

Personally, I liked the ads. In Relevance by Tim Manners, he quotes a Chief Marketing Officer that says televised marketing isn’t dead. People still like the audio visual experience. Granted, it’s not near as effective as it used to be (for sure). But in summary, let’s look at what Microsoft has accomplished by the ads.

First, the folks in valley wag are buzzing. They’re all talking. Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, Michael Arrington, etc. Isn’t the point of marketing to get people to talk about your product. I’m a huge fan of Seth, and I know he’d say something like “The goal of marketing is to create products that people will want to evangelize…turn customers into salespeople.” I agree. But if you’re Microsoft and your product is an enormous commodity and isn’t something that people want to shout from the rafters about, how do you go about shaping your image…?

Second, they embedded countless eggs in the commercials that only the tech geeks understand. Jerry met Bill in a shoe store in a mall (Apple). The shoes “were a little snug but he could make it work.” (Macs) Jerry says, “You know it’s made with real leather” (as if that was a big deal). Bill Gates shows his ID to Jerry, and the photo was from his old mug shot. The easter eggs have the tech community talking amongst themselves. There’s a shared and exclusive experience tailor made for the key influencers.

Third, the ads are spreading. They’re not showing these commercials a lot on TV. They’re primarily circulating through the blogsphere. John Dvorack hates the ads, but he admitted he put them on his blog. They’re getting traction.

I think the point of the ads is to get people to realize everyone uses Microsoft. Although there’s no exclusivity with Microsoft, no scarcity, no charismatic tribe, the whole world is tied to Microsoft because their stuff works!

Although Apple has a Tribe of folks that evangelize their products, Microsoft has a larger Tribe. It’s called “Microsoft Office” Tribe. The whole world uses Office. Want to be in business and create files that are universally accepted? Better have Office. And it works.

So here’s my point…maybe televised ads are still relevant. In its ads, Microsoft isn’t selling products, they’re telling a story (with all sorts of insider jokes embedded). And the story is spreading. Granted, $300 million is a lot of coin, but let’s wait a sec and see how effective it can be. I think Microsoft’s problem is that they’ve allowed their competition to reshape the public’s perception of Microsoft. They’ve been on the sideline too long.

This is a fantastic excerpt from Seth Godin’s soon to be out book, Tribes.  What industry will you disrupt?  

Something to Believe In
Tribes are about faith—about belief in an idea and a community. And they are grounded in respect and admiration for the leader of the tribe and for the other members as well.

Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that this happens to be a brilliant strategy.

Three things have happened, pretty much at the same time. All three point to the same (temporarily uncomfortable, but ultimately marvelous) outcome:

1. Many people are starting to realize that they work a lot and that working on stuff they believe in (and making things happen) is much more satisfying than just getting a paycheck and waiting to get fired (or die).

2. Many organizations have discovered that the factory-centric model of producing goods and services is not nearly as profitable as it used to be.

3. Many consumers have decided to spend their money buying things that aren’t just factory-produced commodities. And they’ve decided not to spend their time embracing off-the-shelf ideas. Consumers have decided, instead, to spend time and money on fashion, on stories, on things that matter, and on things they believe in.

So, here we are. We live in a world where we have the leverage to make things happen, the desire to do work we believe in, and a marketplace that is begging us to be remarkable. And, yet, in the middle of these changes, we still get stuck.

Stuck following archaic rules.

Stuck in industries that not only avoid change but actively fight it.

Stuck in fear of what our boss will say, stuck because we’re afraid we’re going to get in trouble.

Most of all, we’re stuck acting like managers or employees, instead of like the leaders we could become. We’re embracing a factory instead of a tribe.

The irony is that all of this fear used to be useful. Fear of change is built into most organisms, because change is the first sign of risk. Fear of change in a huge factory is appropriate when efficiency is the order of the day. Today, though, the fear that used to protect us at work is now our enemy; it’s now the thing standing in the way. Imagine having worked at AOL or a mortgage broker or Sears. It might have been fun for a while, but it’s no fun at all when the factory fades.

“How was your day?” is a question that matters a lot more than it seems. It turns out that the people who like their jobs the most are also the ones who are doing the best work, making the most impact, and changing the most. Changing the way they see the world, sure, but also changing the world. By challenging the status quo, a cadre of heretics is discovering that one person, just one, can make a huge difference.

Jonathan Ive is having a ball working at Apple, but he’s also making a difference. He’s leading the design team and feeding the Macintosh tribe with ideas they embrace.

Micah Sifry doesn’t just enjoy the work he does every day at the Personal Democracy Forum; he’s leading a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. Thousands of people depend on Micah’s leadership, and in return, he spends his day engaged in work that matters.

Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.

The marketplace now rewards (and embraces) the heretics. It’s clearly more fun to make the rules than to follow them, and for the first time, it’s also profitable, powerful, and productive to do just that.

This shift might be bigger than you think. Suddenly, heretics, troublemakers, and change agents aren’t merely thorns in our side—they are the keys to our success. Tribes give you leverage. And each of us has more leverage than ever before. I want you to think about the ramifications of the new leverage. I’m hoping you’ll see that the most profitable path is also the most reliable, the easiest, and the most fun.