You have to hand it to Microsoft marketing – they can ‘announce’ something that’s been in place for years and get a pile of free publicity.
Microsoft is heavily promoting a deal they’ve had for a long time.
You have to hand it to Microsoft marketing – they can ‘announce’ something that’s been in place for years and get a pile of free publicity.
We wondered why stories about a great $59.95 deal from Microsoft started appearing as well as emails from readers asking why Office Watch hadn’t written about this ‘new’ pricing of Office 2007.
The reason is simple – the $59.95 deal isn’t new at all. Office Watch has written about the student targeted ‘Ultimate Steal’ since it was first trialed in Australia some years ago.
There’s nothing new – the $59.95 offer for Office 2007 Ultimate edition is still for college students only with a campus email account. Delivery is entirely via email and download unless you pay extra for DVD’s in the mail.
All the details and links are at ‘Stealing’ Office 2007 – with Microsoft’s permission with details of language packs and other countries in which similar offers are available.
There is a curious press release alleging that the offer is special for particular ethnic groups. This press release alleging the deal is ‘targeting 12 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Hispanic student organizations at colleges and universities in the U.S‘. However the deal isn’t targeting or special to those campuses at all. Since the ‘Ultimate Steal’ has been and is available to all US campuses regardless of ethnicity, it’s hard to see how the two professional groups named in the press release have ‘partnered’ with Microsoft beyond lending their names to a press release about an existing student promotion.
It is clever promotion and cheap for Microsoft. Many outlets have picked up on the ‘story’ either repeating it word-for-word or writing about the ‘new’ 91% discount for Office 2007.
Burying the Lead
What’s really strange is that Microsoft chose to ‘bury the lead’ or hide the truly new part of the Ultimate Steal (at least it’s new as far as we can tell). There’s an affiliate program for the Ultimate Steal .
