Microsoft is taking a novel approach to promote business-to-business products and services with a 30-minute online business show going live today that features Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, and his wife, Suzy.
In the first show, the duo, who also do a weekly BusinessWeek column and consulting, help the Hertz car rental company hash out an information technology issue using a Welch method known as a “work out.”
Welch devised the process in the 1990s at GE. It pits people with a conflict across from each other at a table. The Welches ask questions to get to the heart of the issue. They go at it until the two sides come together on a solution.
“When (Microsoft CEO) Steve Ballmer called me and took me through what he was trying to do there with business-to-business, it sounded like fun,” says Welch, who led GE from 1981 until 2001.
It’s Everybody’s Business is available at http://EverybodysBusiness.msn.com. Aimed at business IT executives, it was created by reality show producer Reveille Productions, maker of The Biggest Loser. The reality show builds on Microsoft’s current “b-to-b” ad campaign, It’s Everybody’s Business by agency JWT, which also helped develop the show. Two more shows are in the works, but Microsoft would not disclose the subject companies.
“Marketing in business-to-business is hugely important to Microsoft’s mission,” says Gayle Troberman, Microsoft’s general manager, advertising and customer engagement.
The tech giant spent $13 billion in sales and marketing in 2008. Traditionally, business-to-business efforts have received the bulk of the budget, but lately, the company has stepped up its consumer marketing. A new campaign by Crispin Porter + Bogusky helps Windows PCs take on Macs. And Microsoft search engine Bing, a Google rival, now is being promoted with teaser ads by JWT, with a full campaign to follow through the summer. New…