Microsoft Viral Videos Promoting the new Windows Live Hotmail

Sat, May 19, 2007 Posted By:Eric Friedman

Marketing.fm, Technology, Video, Viral, Viral Marketing

LiveSide.Net points us to the new Windows Live Hotmail video’s Microsoft is using to promote the new service.

Upon the launch of Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft decided to not automatically upgrade all of their current Hotmail users to the Windows Live version of the service, but rather to ease them into the upgrade by giving them the option of “going Live” at first. Today we’re taking a look at one of the ways that Microsoft is trying to win over the current Hotmail users and get them to make the jump.

You can see all the new videos here.

I actually think some of the videos are funny with the play on words used – “hot male” vs. “hotmail” – ill let you be the judge.

There has been a lot of talk recently about viral videos and how to track their success. I am not sure if these are truly “viral” videos as you can identify who created them, the product, and it even states their purpose. I was wondering if there really is a true benchmark of what makes a video “viral” in the first place?

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Eric Friedman - who has written 647 posts on Eric Friedman – Marketing.fm.

Analyst at Union Square Ventures, blogger at www.marketing.fm and operating experience within SEM, SEO, and Social Media. You should follow me on twitter @EricFriedman

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  • eric, check out this CBS news bit from : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE6SGhsQ5pU

    first the newscaster gives us a clue: a viral video is not a disease you catch from your TV (har har)

    Jennifer Feikin, Director of Google Video defines a "viral video" as organic, grassroots, real, in short, an art more than a science.

    Feikin and Jaffe's point is that that can't be created by brands (like Coke), but must be created by users, or else they'll come off as "fake" or "trying too hard."
  • I didn't expect much to be honest, but I thought the videos were actually very well done and definitely speaks to the viral video crowd.

    I'm not sure they will be passed on that much, but it's a great way to build some excitement presentation-wise for MS. Not a bad job at all, certainly seen a lot worse from other big corporations trying to cash in on cool.
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