The start of a perfect marketing story.
“Borrowed from” American Philosophical Society.
So this is very interesting. According to Techcrunch, Microsoft have brought together 20 or so of the world’s best developers to create the next generation search engine. Veiled in secrecy except for the identity of the lead developer, a lady by the name of Sanaz Ahari (the youngest ever lead product manager in Microsoft history), this move is brilliant on a couple of fronts.
First, the entire project is (in my mind) marketing as a service. Search isn’t a core Microsoft product – but is highly complimentary to their core business. Search drives further usage and consideration of other Microsoft products so while we could quibble about this being a product – I think it’s legitimate to classify it as marketing.
Secondly, they’ve woven in a huge thread of social capital by doing it in the way they are. Immediately, the idea of 20 of the world’s best developers brings to mind other dream teams. The Seven Samurai or Magnificent Seven, the 1992 USA Men’s Olympic basketball team, the Manhattan Project, the 2006 England World Cup Squad, and so on.
Not only were most of these dream teams successful against massive odds, but the fact that there’s a lonely team against all odds myth in so many different areas of society almost guarantees that this story – if played properly – will grip the imagination of the public. This will be an interesting one to follow.