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This article was published on July 24, 2012

Windows Phone hopes that a web video game show will entice you to buy its hardware


Windows Phone hopes that a web video game show will entice you to buy its hardware

We don’t have the full story on this yet, but we have enough of it that we can share it with you. It seems that Windows Phone has a new promotional operation on the move: a game show based in online video clips, that is designed to — in theory — highlight the platform..

Called ‘are you fast?’ the game show is designed to pit average people in tasks that while based in reality, are hyperbolized – think pushing a stroller through an obstacle course, for example. In the clips, Windows Phone is more a mention at the top, and end, with the middle bit being about who can complete something the quickest.

How does that boost Windows Phone? I have a hunch that this is part of Windows Phone’s long push to establish itself as a platform that, through use, saves you time by allowing you to complete tasks in short order. Thus, ‘are you fast’ is a riff on phone platforms: are they fast?

Thus, the winner in the game is rewarded, just as the user of Windows Phone is gifted back seconds each day for having used the phone line. Tenuous? We think so. I am fully unsure of how Microsoft will functionally and effectively tie the ad to the platform, and explain its benefits.

I never thought that I would say something like this, but the ‘Smoke by Windows Phone’ ads are much more direct, and thus probably effective, than this push.

However, the ads don’t look expensive, and hosting them on Vimeo won’t break the bank. And yet, will the impact be worth the dollars? Will anyone but fans of the platform see the ad? I suppose that by posting it here, I’m sending it to some outside of that demographic, but I don’t suspect that the ads will have a large consumer viewership.

And really, a game show to promote a phone? At least put the phone in the show, right?

Hat tip to WMPowerUser for finding the videos. Top Image Credit: vernieman

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