Did Microsoft Steal My Idea?

As many of you know, I’m in school full-time getting my MBA at Baruch College (Zicklin) in New York. Last March I entered the Baruch Microsoft Marketing Competition. The goal of the competition was to come up with a marketing plan that would use a $5 million budget to achieve 50,000 downloads of 3 or more Windows Live Suite services (Messenger, Write, Photo Gallery, Mail, etc) and 20,000 registrations of Windows OneCare ($50 a year).

My teammate, Jason, and I carefully weighed our options. We could play it safe and come up with a marketing plan that a typical agency would come up with. This would entail a nice mix of search, display and print advertising to the relevant target markets. Or we could come up with something totally unique and show the judges something they haven’t seen before.  We chose the latter option.

We immediately took aim at the metrics we were being judged on. Downloads don’t tell you much. Anyone can download something. Using the product is what’s important. We focused on product usage, not downloads. Inspired by AMEX points and Marlboro points, we created a program called Microsoft LivePoints. Users accrue points by interacting with the products they downloaded. They also accrue points by referring friends. Users with the most points win weekly, monthly, and yearly prizes. It’s not the best program. But at least it wasn’t typical.

We had all the details written out in our proposal document. Got accepted into the semi-finals where we presented our plan to high-level Microsoft executives. We made it to the finals and presented to some even higher-level Microsoft executives. Eventually we came in 2nd place. The criticism we got on our plan that while the execs loved the focus on use rather than downloads, they felt the plan required some implementation on Microsoft’s end and they have a history of not implementing well (I’m not kidding. That is what they said). We ended up getting a couples of Zunes as prizes. It was good experience and I’m glad I did it.

Last week Microsoft announced a new program called SearchPerks. The program allows users to accrue tickets by using their search engine. Users can submit these tickets for prizes. While somewhat different, this idea sounds eerily similar to the pitch my friend Jason and I gave to Microsoft execs 6 months ago.

Check out my presentation from the competition embedded below. Then check out SearchPerks. Our team was named after the first prize…an XBox, Zune and a dinner with Microsoft executives.

What do you think? Do you think my pitch had any influence on this new SearchPerks program? I’ll let you decide.

The Web 2.0 Civil War

I’ve been noticing a lot of battles amongst Web 2.0 giants lately. Let’s just take a look at a few of them:

• Microsoft’s battle to buy Yahoo (now it’s more like Yahoo’s battle to be bought by Microsoft)
• eBay’s battle with Craigslist
• Michael Arrington’s battle with Wired
• and more recently, Google’s battle with Facebook

What I find most interesting about these battles is that, only recently, are we seeing the dark side of business with some Web 2.0 darlings. eBay and Craigslist! They’re such good companies that have helped consumers communicate and get better prices for their goods. Why are they fighting? Well, it’s because eBay bought 25% of Craigslist and then launched a competing service. What about Michael Arrington and Wired? Well, Techcrunch is going to be syndicated at the Wall Street Journal website and Wired is pissed about it.

What is comes down to is that none of these companies (even Craigslist) is about anything other than money. Each company has its own agenda and it all comes down to dollars and cents. Find me one successful web 2.0 company that seems to be altruistic in its ways and I’ll show you how all they’re doing is focusing on the $$$. You have to love capitalism.

Subway Search Car

The subway door opens and I step in the car with a swarm of other passengers. We all consciously and subconsciously adjust our body position to maximize our personal comfort as well as allow as much room as possible for other passengers. Like a can of sardines, the packed car rides to the next stop where some people get off, some people get on, and the process of reestablishment for personal space starts again.

This subway dance that I perform every morning (along with other NYers) reminds me of the current search market. We’re in between stops riding the packed train. We’ve got a huge fat man named Google who takes up most of the car, somewhat smaller men named Yahoo and Microsoft, and then a few skinny people on the side with the biggest being Ask.com.

We’re coming up to the next stop and something will change. Microsoft might still eat Yahoo (wait a couple months and they might rebid after the stock drops from shareholder lawsuits) and we’re all waiting for that new innovation in search. Whether Yahoo gets eaten, attaches itself to Google (they start dating and can stand closer to each other), or just withers away, there will some reorganization of space in this subway car in the near future. What we need is some new people to come in. We need innovation in this space. We need the next Google to compete with Google. I’m looking forward to the next stop.