Internet Explorer 9 Ad Campaign Asks Reddit Users For Feedback

Microsoft really needs Internet Explorer 9 to be a hit amongst web users.  In an effort to improve IE 9, which is currently in beta and available for download Microsoft is trying a new approach to gather some (perhaps brutally) honest feedback.  In their latest ad campaign, Microsoft has reached out to the Reddit team to post a story on their blog about the upcoming release of IE 9 requesting them to ask users for feedback on the product.

While it’s not uncommon for companies to use social media as part of their advertising campaigns, it is uncommon to let the social media site manage the campaign for you.  According to the Reddit blog, “Microsoft is getting ready to release Internet Explorer 9, and they reached out to us because they genuinely want to start a dialog with the reddit community. In fact, they’ve taken the unprecedented step of putting the reddit team in charge of this entire campaign.”

This is certainly something I have yet to see, could it be new a trend?  Would users react differently to a campaign managed by people they trust as opposed to some large company or marketing firm?  I would venture to guess – probably.  But I haven’t done or seen any research to back that up.  It would definitely be interesting to experiment with though.

Microsoft also seems to be looking to take part of the Reddit community starting next week by posting in the sites IamA section.  A section of the site where you can post what you are, have people ask you about yourself, etc.  Microsoft also made a point to say the post will not be a let down.

So far the blog post has over 2,600 comments – many of them with useful feedback and lively discussion amongst Redditors.  It will be interesting to see if Reddit can take this model of advertising to the next level and really capitalize on it.