Microsoft's Surface has just lapped Apple's original iPad in video views. The video campaign for the much hyped hybrid tablet has surpassed 4.5 million views in just four days after being released. By comparison, Apple's original iPad campaign, Meet iPad, had *just* 1.8+ million views in its first four days after release. Today, Meet iPad has a total 3.8 million views.
The Surface video (above) is pure hype. With shots of dancing mercury and metallic dust draped in muted grays, combined with mechanical music driven by a methodical beat, the video has an industrial, minimalist feel, much like the tablet itself. The video highlights Surface's two big differentiators from the iPad: a kickstand and an attachable soft keyboard. To make the keyboard stand out even more, the video has multiple shots of vibrant keyboard colors like fuchsia.
Surface hasn't just trumped the much anticipated, much hyped, original iPad's video campaign. It's also taken down each successive introductory iPad campaign. Four days after release, Introducing iPad 2 had 1.2+ million views. The New iPad had 1.9+ million views. If you combine these totals, the three video launch campaigns for iPad have a total 5.1 million views – four days post release. Surface, remember, has 4.5+ million views.
It Could Have Been Bigger
Despite the viral success the Surface video campaign has seen, it could have been even bigger if it had taken a page from the Apple playbook. With each new iPad and iPhone launch, Apple publishes two core videos: the main 30 second ad and a longer featurette with executive interviews touching on Apple's latest thinking, design, manufacturing processes, etc.
For example, four days after release, The New iPad's featurette had over 1 million views. The 30 second spot had just under 950,000 views in the same time period. Today, the featurette is responsible for 4.2 million views of the campaign's total 5.9 million.
There's no way to tell how many views a Surface featurette would have produced, but it certainly would have provided interested audiences with more video content to watch, which would have driven additional visibility.
But Will It Sell?
The big question that remains is whether or not people will buy Surface. With no release date or pricing information, your guess is as good as mine. But, from the overwhelming response we've seen in the short time since Surface and its video campaign has been released, consumer interest and anticipation is clearly high for the new Microsoft device.
