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Microsoft Corp.'s employees were turned into a micromarket earlier this month as the company unleashed its first draft of the Seattle version of its highly touted Sidewalk Web site (http://www.seattle.sidewalk.com) to the more than 16,000 workers on the Redmond, Wash., campus.
The employees were an optimum group on which to focus the latest online media venture. Interestingly, the campaign did not net any negative comments from employees - according to company officials..
Jill Sato, account manager for The Leonhardt Group, a Seattle-based design firm contracted to pave the way with a market test, said Microsoft employees are always being asked to test something, so it was important to drive this project down a different avenue. With this campaign, employees were pitched the Sidewalk concept at work and asked to respond through email.
"We wanted {the employees} to know that this is a privilege and you are getting the opportunity to see this before anyone else," she said. Microsoft wanted to create a diversion that emphasized having fun as opposed to a work-related piece of software.
"This is the first time we've turned a campaign inward," said Ted Leonhardt, president and co-owner of The Leonhardt Group. "It's an interesting phenomenon that I call micromarketing rather than niche marketing." He said the "pinpointable audience" of thousands has great benefit for the Sidewalk brand and...