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.

Original Concept Composites

Audience Research

Our team kicked the project off by performing an in-depth look at the Gen Z audience (note: research done in 2021-22). Below is a sampling of that research.

Audience Overview

Gen-Zers are the most ethnically and racially diverse generation and the most open to gender identities. They’re digital natives, meaning they’ve grown up with technology and have advanced understanding of social media. They have a strong sense of self-direction—they’ve held the answer to almost any question in the palm of their hand since the day they were born. They’re fueled by their experiences and affect change through the digital spaces they occupy.

Stereotypical design elements and imagery do not resonate with this audience.

Images and language can create an instant emotional connection.

Gen-Zers want content that feels real, personal, casual, and informative.

Older Gen Zers picked up color trends from the 80s and 90s—bright, bold, and sometimes neon

Younger members of Gen Z are taking up retro-classic palettes from the 50s and 60s

Weird It Up

One common thread we found throughout our research was that Gen-Z embraces individuality, uniqueness, humor and above all, weirdness. This audience really seems to gravitate to the odd, random, and unexpected. Here are a few examples of the types of ads and organic posts we found.

Results

The campaign was outside of Microsoft brand’s comfort zone, but after hearing us out and listening to our rationale behind the concepts, they agreed to allow the creative to run for a quarter to see if it performed. A full year later, the campaign was still outperforming standard Microsoft brand assets in market on display and social platforms.

The campaign launched in January 2022. These performance insights are from third quarter (July - Sept) 2022.