Microsoft Gen Z Campaign
In 2021, Generation Z became the largest generation in the world, constituting 32 percent of the global population. They’re no longer “future consumers”—they present and account for a large share of the population. It makes sense then that Microsoft 365 would want to pay close attention to this audience—particularly because, according to their research, Gen Zer’s don’t know much about Microsoft. As Google continues to gain traction within the productivity software space with Slides, Sheets and Docs, Microsoft can no longer rely on brand recognition with the younger generations. My team at H&P took a deep dive into this audience segment and found—among many other things—that they appreciate content that feels casual, informal, playful and humorous.
We came up with two hero videos that ladder up to a some key value propositions that Microsoft 365 offers.
Our first video stars two friends: a robot named Tin and a shark named Fin. “Why a robot and a shark?” Precisely because you can’t help but ask that question—it’s random, it’s unexpected—and the playful interaction between these two characters is light hearted, endearing and, well, ridiculous. It catches your attention while subtly demonstrating Microsoft’s cloud storage solution: OneDrive.
Our second video stars two new characters: a pigeon named Bertie and an Octopus named The Govna’. It’s another playful and comical scene of events, which culminates with Bertie bird-pooping on The Govna’s art canvas to complete an abstract painting. Introducing pigeon poop in a Microsoft ad was definitely a first! This adert entertains while subtly promoting Microsoft’s Designer in PowerPoint feature.
The two videos were sized for various paid social (stories, feed) and pre- and mid-roll placements and we also created a set of static web banner ads to compliment the social campaign.
