Why I have bothered with the Windows 7 logo program

Across on his blog Andy Bryce has written some very good reasons for why he won’t be bothering with the round of Windows 7 logos marketing Microsoft has launched.  First I should point out that there is a difference between the “Compatible with Windows 7 logo” and associated marketing materials and the “Certified For” program run by Microsoft.  The latter, I’m in full agreement with Andy.  I saw no benefit in the Vista version and see no beneift in the Windows 7 version.

Rather we’re talking about the logo to the left of this article.

Andy writes:

“Am I the only one being totally bombarded with ‘Give your application the green light’ and related emails from Microsoft and its minions? I must have had at least 30 so far. I took a few minutes to list my product in the Windows 7 compatibility guide (beware, cheesy audio). But that is all I intend to do.“

First I can answer Andy directly.  Yes, I started receiving marcom (marketing communications) from Microsoft well before the Windows 7 launch and long before the RTM was released to MSDN subscribers.

However…

I have made use of the logo, but more importantly I’ve made use of the press release too, for a couple of reasons that I view as important.  Your mileage may vary.

1. The logo is a massive improvement over Microsoft’s previous logos.  It’s not to bad at all.
2. The press release that is a requirement to show the logo contains lots of juicy keywords.  Perfect material for blogs – and all of my product sites have blogs thirsty for keyword rich material.  At no time did I or do I expect the press to snap to attention on the reciept of one of these press releases and say “By George!  MixAction Software And Audio Pty Ltd products are fully Windows 7 compatible – STOP THE PRESSES!”  
3. I’m weary of writing two sets of code for multimedia support between XP and Vista/Windows 7.  If only a handfull of people viewing my sites get the twitch to upgrade to Windows 7 it’ll make my life a hell of a lot easier.  For that reason I’m content to assist Microsoft in their marketing.

So each of our products have a Windows 7 Compatible logo and accompanying press release.  After release of the press release I saw – and still see – poeple searching and coming into the sites with keywords related to the products but specifying “Windows 7″.  That was my intent.  It’s worked.  It’s not a huge number mind – but it’s probably more than my competitors are getting because they aren’t talking about Windows 7 at all!

At the end of the day – as Micro ISV’s – even a handfull of visitors for the ten minutes it took to rework Microsoft’s press release template are worth coaxing.

Will post soon on new product releases and a restructure of our company.

Scott Kane