Android user wins the “Smoked by Windows Phone” challenge, Microsoft fails to pay up

[=X=]

LOL I just read this, MS has had some pretty good campaigns. It's anti-Apple of "What can you get with a $1000" was so good it forced Apple Exec to get in contact with MS and have them pull the ads.

It's "Smoked by Windows Phone" seemd good too until ...

Microsoft’s ... “Smoked by Windows Phone“... will give you a task to perform on your smartphone. The adman will perform the same operation on his Windows Phone. Both of you then simultaneously try to achieve this arbitrary goal while being recorded for what will eventually be a YouTube video. If you finish first, you get money. If the propagandist finishes first, you have to look into Microsoft’s cameras and admit defeat. Intomobile

So Sahas won … but according to Microsoft he didn’t. The reason? “Just because,” said an employee at the Microsoft Store.
Intomobile

Here is the response from the Marketer responsible for the "Smoked by Windows Phone Campaign"

@sahaskatta @skattertech @mattlynley @joshuatopolsky Just saw this.Sorry about the hassle...come back for a rematch on a random challenge!
— Ben Rudolph (@BenThePCGuy) March 26, 2012
The Verge

If they would have just paid the guy and let him be on his way it would have been a non event. The guy would have had is laptop and been hush about it.

Maybe MS is showing genius here and is playing the "Bad PR is good PR" but I'm guessing that is not the case, they are losing creditability here twice. By losing the competition and by failing to pay up.
=X=

[RainingLemur]

At least they finally paid up. He got his lappy and a new phone.

[Sil_liS]

But what's the point for this challenge? You can only win if you already have the widgets on the home screen, and then it's just a matter of how fast you turn the phone on and unlock it.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

At least they finally paid up. He got his lappy and a new phone.

Yes here is the tweet

Hey @sahaskatta , @Microsoftstore & I want to make things right. So I've got a laptop & phone (& apology) for you. Email me!

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

But what's the point for this challenge? You can only win if you already have the widgets on the home screen, and then it's just a matter of how fast you turn the phone on and unlock it.

The campaign really isn't about what phone is faster. It's just a market ploy so folks can start associating MS phone as speedy and efficient. It's not the first time they've lost this competition, they've lost to iPhone and other Android phones. The story here is they refused to acknowledge it.


Yes most marketing campaigns are rigged constraint enough so the marketing product looks better. If you read the blog I linked the MS Phone had the two cities pinned to the home screen. The competition wasn't really "fair" it was designed for MS to win.


Here is Samsung playing the same game where they have a savvy phone user vs an iPhone user who obviously does not know how to user her phone.

[heySkippy]

A Windows laptop? What was 2nd prize again?

[plib]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

A Windows laptop? What was 2nd prize again?

An Apple laptop.

[afa]

Zing!

[=X=]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

A Windows laptop? What was 2nd prize again?

What makes me laugh is they also gave him a phone...I'm guessing it's a windows phone.

[bill_mchale]

I think it is a shame this sort of stuff happens. I don't know about the internals, but the Metro GUI on Windows Phone 7 is rather nice and the large tiles make it easy to use one handed (I don't have a windows phone, but I am currently using Launcher 7 on my Android Phone).

--
Bill

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

I think it is a shame this sort of stuff happens. I don't know about the internals, but the Metro GUI on Windows Phone 7 is rather nice and the large tiles make it easy to use one handed (I don't have a windows phone, but I am currently using Launcher 7 on my Android Phone).

--
Bill

YES it is good as a PHONE. Lacks app diversity though

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

A Windows laptop? What was 2nd prize again?

Two Windows laptops!