Our partnerships created entertainment experiences that simplified content our audiences adored. In primetime, we created brief, punchy, and entertaining vignettes using content from shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Fringe to deliver the essence of a storyline or character—all under the rubric of “Simplified by Windows 7.”During football season, we partnered with networks to create, for example, minute-long segments with NBC called “Simplify the Game,” in which famous Coach Tony Dungy would simplify a previous or upcoming game. On Fox, announcers summed up the contest in their punchiest seven words with the “7-word recap.” Online, we extended the Simplify concept in ways people could share. Windows 7 simplified fantasy football picks with Fox Sports’ “Fantasy Fix” and sponsored ABC’s “Lost Untangled,” aiming to simplify television’s most complex show every week. Fifteen-second Family Guy vignettes demonstrated the idea that Windows 7 was so simple, even an idiot could do it.

If our message was simplicity, our results were pretty simple, too: “Simplifying Primetime” vignettes drove a 17% increase in positive brand opinion in the three months following the launch [1].Sales and financial results were even better. Windows 7 first week sales were 234% higher than Vista’s. For the quarter ending, Microsoft’s profits beat Wall Street estimates, up 60% to a record $6.7 billion.

Why? Windows 7 sales were much stronger than expected, with Windows business revenues up 70%.[1] Nielsen IAG – January 2010