Tarana Khan
Digital

Microsoft to make your office over in reality show

The online and TV contest will make over a chosen participant’s office in order to promote Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft India has launched an online campaign and reality show in which it will revamp the office of the winner of the contest. The Makeover My Office contest will require participants to register on the contest site, www.makeovermyoffice.co.in, and write a small essay about why their office needs a makeover. They can supplement their claim with pictures of the office premises. Successful participants will have their offices revamped on a reality show on NDTV Profit.

The contest is being used as a platform to promote Microsoft’s latest version of its Office software for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, Microsoft Office 2007.

Microsoft to make your office over in reality show
The contest website
Speaking to agencyfaqs! about the contest, Sanjay Manchanda, director, business division, Microsoft India, says, “The Office 2007 product is not just an upgrade, so we wanted to induce trials among customers. This is how we came up with the reality show in which we will make over the individual workspace, just like the software.”

Manchanda says that the campaign is aimed at what the company terms as the information worker – people who spend five-seven hours in office. He adds that about 3,000 people have registered on the contest site, and about 440 people have submitted essays. As an added incentive, all those who have registered will get a 60-day trial of Office 2007.

Microsoft to make your office over in reality show
Sanjay Manchanda
In the second phase, which has just begun, five participants will be short-listed by the judges, Ranjivjit Singh, chief marketing officer, Microsoft India; Mrutyunjay Mishra, director of research agency JuxtConsult; and Tanushree Gulati, director at design studio M:OFA.

In the third and final phase, a 30-minute reality show will be aired on NDTV Profit, in which the five semi-finalists will be featured and viewers will be allowed to vote for the winner through SMS, e-mail and on the website. The final will be aired in the second week of April.

The contest website will also evolve to include videos of the participants talking about why their office needs a makeover.

Manchanda adds that television was used to prompt people to participate in the contest, with ads on NDTV Profit and CNN-IBN. A campaign was run online through display ads and e-mailers aimed at the target audience. The company used radio by promoting the contest through radio jockey mentions on Big 92.7 FM. Microsoft ran print ads in magazines such as Outlook and on Live Media, the OOH media network.

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