Tag: Microsoft

Microsoft Office Project 2007: Mega Woosh

Microsoft created a viral featuring Bruno Kammerl, described as building the biggest waterslide on earth. The test run was more than successful, and the film leans into that “did I just see that” energy from the first second.

A stunt film that behaves like a project story

The mechanism is classic viral bait. A bigger-than-life engineering build. A simple premise. A single high-risk moment. Then just enough mystery around “who is this” and “why does this exist” to make people share it while they debate whether it is real.

In enterprise project-management software marketing, a bold proof-like narrative can communicate “we make impossible plans doable” faster than feature lists ever will.

Why it lands

It uses constraint and payoff. The build feels specific enough to be plausible, and the jump delivers an instant, physical climax. Even if viewers suspect it is staged, the film still works because the emotion is the product. Surprise, disbelief, and the urge to forward it.

Extractable takeaway: If you want a product that sells “capability” to feel memorable, show one exaggerated outcome, then let the audience connect the dots back to the promise.

What this says about the brand

The strategic intent is to borrow the energy of ambitious personal projects and map it onto a tool used for complex planning. The viral creates a mental shortcut. Big plan. Bold execution. Managed outcome.

The real question is whether this kind of spectacle makes enterprise planning feel ambitious enough to remember. It does, because the campaign turns project management into a visible, shareable outcome instead of a software demo.

What to steal from Mega Woosh

  • Make the promise physical. If your product sells “capability”, dramatize it with a single, extreme outcome people can picture instantly.
  • Lock one simple story rule. Big build. One test. One payoff. The simpler the rule, the easier the share.
  • Use specificity to create plausibility. Named protagonist, concrete build details, and a clear “test run” moment make the film feel real enough to debate.
  • Let the audience connect the metaphor. Do not over-explain the product. Give them the leap from “impossible project” to “project management”.
  • Design the talk trigger. The best virals are built around a single question people argue about. “Is this real” is a distribution engine.
  • Keep the brand cue clean and minimal. Too much branding breaks the spell. Too little branding loses the credit.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Mega Woosh in one line?

A viral stunt film built around an oversized waterslide jump, used to signal “anything is possible” as a metaphor for managing big projects.

Why does this work as marketing for project software?

Because it dramatizes planning and execution as a single, bold narrative. The story does the positioning work without needing specs.

What makes it so shareable?

One premise, one payoff, and a high-disbelief moment that triggers debate and forwarding.

What is the risk of this approach?

If the audience feels tricked rather than entertained, trust can take a hit. The framing needs to stay playful, not deceptive.

What should marketers copy from this format?

Use one extreme, easy-to-explain outcome to embody the promise, then keep the branding light enough for the spectacle to travel.

Xbox Lips: Jukebox Turns Photos into Videos

AKQA has taken Xbox Lips digital with the “Lips Jukebox” on Facebook, which enables users to transform their photos into music videos, in a bid to promote the new game “Lips Number One Hits”.

Xbox Lips Digital

The application is hosted at the Xbox website, and uses a combination of facial recognition technology and Facebook Connect functionality to enable people to choose a song and the photos they want to adapt from their profile before adding singing “Lips” to the faces and then creating the animated, personalized music video.

For social experience design, the winning pattern is simple: let people reuse what they already have, then return a share-ready artifact that feels personal without requiring effort.

Why this idea lands

This is a clean example of “personalisation as entertainment”, meaning it turns something people already have, their photos, into something people want to show, a personalised music video.

Extractable takeaway: If the input is already in the user’s profile and the output looks like finished entertainment, participation becomes a default choice rather than a deliberate one.

The real question is whether your experience returns something people are proud to share, not whether the underlying tech is impressive.

  • Low friction input. Your Facebook photos are already there.
  • High novelty output. Seeing faces “sing” creates instant curiosity and share value.
  • Product-fit promotion. A singing video experience naturally aligns with a music game.

Facial recognition as a feature, not a headline

The facial recognition is not presented as “tech for tech’s sake”. It is simply the enabling layer that makes the result feel surprisingly accurate and personal. Because the facial recognition runs behind the scenes, the experience feels effortless and personal, which makes people more likely to finish the flow and share the output.

This is the right way to use facial recognition in marketing: as invisible plumbing that serves the payoff.

In consumer product launches that rely on social sharing, remixing existing profile media into a finished asset is often the fastest path to reach without asking for extra effort.

What to take from this if you build social experiences

  1. Turn existing assets into new value. Users are more likely to participate when they can reuse what they already have.
  2. Make the output share-ready. The “end product” should be something people naturally want to post.
  3. Keep creation steps short. Selection, preview, publish. The loop should feel quick.
  4. Align the experience with the product promise. A music game promoted through a music-video maker feels coherent.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Xbox Lips Jukebox?

It is a Facebook-connected experience that lets users transform their photos into animated, personalised music videos to promote “Lips Number One Hits”.

What technologies does it use?

It combines facial recognition with Facebook Connect so users can select songs and photos, then apply singing “Lips” to faces and generate a video.

Where is the application hosted?

It is hosted on the Xbox website.

Why does this work as game marketing?

It creates a playful, shareable output that matches the core theme of the game. Music and performance.

What is the transferable lesson?

When you can turn user content into entertainment with minimal effort, you can earn both engagement time and social sharing without heavy persuasion.