Why we’re about to get swamped with Surface ads this holiday season

[dgstorm]

Microsoft looks intent on growing its marketing budget to Samsung-esque proportions. Asymco’s Horace Dediu has posted a chart on his Twitter feed that compares advertising budgets for major tech companies and shows that Microsoft has really ramped up its marketing spending this year, going from roughly $1.6 billion in 2012 to more than $2.5 billion in 2013. While Microsoft’s 2013 marketing budget dwarfs Apple’s comparatively paltry 2013 budget over just over $1 billion, it’s still being vastly outgunned by Samsung and its marketing Death Star that spent well over $4 billion last year.

Continue Reading @: Microsoft marketing budget: $2.5 billion in 2013 | BGR

 

[oion]

Good thing I don't have a TV...

 

[Deleted member 10837]

I also don't have nor watched TV in years. I download everything I want for free from The Pirate Bay and my AdBlock counter is probably in the seven digits by now.

I find it a bit amusing that these companies spend billions in advertisement while Canonical tries to promote the Ubuntu Edge - the would-be highest end phone in the world with a bad quality home camera.

[video=youtube;bk9-v8Sl4yU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk9-v8Sl4yU[/video]

 

[oion]

I also don't have nor watched TV in years. I download everything I want for free from The Pirate Bay and my AdBlock counter is probably in the seven digits by now.

That's nice, and not something you should be bragging about.

The last thing a public tech forum of this nature needs, especially for new users coming in, is to be associated with illegal activities.

 

[Deleted member 10837]

That's nice, and not something you should be bragging about.

The last thing a public tech forum of this nature needs, especially for new users coming in, is to be associated with illegal activities.

A common misconception that torrenting, which is just file sharing is inherently illegal.

 

[oion]

A common misconception that torrenting, which is just file sharing is inherently illegal.

Again, that's nice. And irrelevant. I know file sharing in itself isn't illegal, but you did admit to getting stuff you want for "free," when I'm sure they weren't intended to be. The fact that you brought up the entire subject unbidden is just a casual method of bragging about it, which is just unnecessary on a tech forum designed for discussion about the Surface products and tech support.

So back on topic.

Advertising is meh. But, it should be much better this time around for MS compared to the dancing.

 

[Deleted member 10837]

Again, that's nice. And irrelevant. I know file sharing in itself isn't illegal, but you did admit to getting stuff you want for "free," when I'm sure they weren't intended to be. The fact that you brought up the entire subject unbidden is just a casual method of bragging about it, which is just unnecessary on a tech forum designed for discussion about the Surface products and tech support.

So back on topic.

Advertising is meh. But, it should be much better this time around for MS compared to the dancing.

You can't be sure when you are assuming. An example would be open source software such as Linux distros (which can get upwards of 1GB) can be incredibly slow to download from a small developer's server.

 

[scasn4]

why is it in every forum you go in no one manages to stick with the subject?

 

[Pepper]

At least this forum isn't full of Apple fanbois telling us how stupid and closed minded we are because we use Windows.

 

[Pat Angelo]

Fortunately,I hardly watch TV ...

 

[strollin]

You aren't immune from advertising simply because you download stuff you watch instead of watching it on TV due to "product placement". For instance, I was watching "NCIS" last night and they were using a SP3 as a video camera at an airport, propped up with it's kickstand so they could send video back to the office. In other scenes at the office, other agents were using SP3s to perform various tasks. I'm seeing lots of this type of subtle advertising by MS.

I tend to record shows on my DVR and skip the ads during playback but that doesn't keep me away from advertising entirely.

 

[VickiFL]

You aren't immune from advertising simply because you download stuff you watch instead of watching it on TV due to "product placement". For instance, I was watching "NCIS" last night and they were using a SP3 as a video camera at an airport, propped up with it's kickstand so they could send video back to the office. In other scenes at the office, other agents were using SP3s to perform various tasks. I'm seeing lots of this type of subtle advertising by MS.

I tend to record shows on my DVR and skip the ads during playback but that doesn't keep me away from advertising entirely.

Exactly. I've seen Microsoft stuff all over Arrow and Agents of Shield, just to name two shows.