very cool...I googled zune commercials the other day to see what you guys were doing... Couldn't really find anything. Good looking out Cesar...

Mmmmm... We like fresh stuff!!!

Nice! Totally different from the experimental online spots; but very simple, original and unexpected. I really like the way the "social aspect" is highlighted. Good job. The picnic one is my fave, but the dog scratching is pretty funny.

Uh, yeah, I remember when commercials used to tell me the name of the product and what it did and 'made me want one'. Don't get me wrong, I hate the ipod with a passion, but these commercials do nothing for those uninitiated in zune-ness. I see people dancing, a DJ using vinyl (who the hell uses vinyl!!?), breakdancing, and a bunch of 'could be one of those Emm Three Pee thingies' in everyones hand. Show the amazingly slick UI, show 4-5 people trading songs and trying to 'one-up' each other with cooler songs, show video being played on the screen (something I've NEVER seen in an ipod commercial), show screens of zune marketplace, show someone plugging it into a 360 and playing music. Cripes, so many things to show that would catch my attention...but instead I get what looks like Central Park from 1988, you only have 2-3 seconds before I press 'skip' on my PVR!

Um those are some of the weakest commercials I have ever seen.Who is your target market druggies and hippies?These commercials look dark dry and boring.Welcome to the social?What kind of marketing theme is that? I'm a marketing student and no fan boy of apple or the ipod but apple's marketing with Bono is 1000 times better than this.Apple's marketing is colorful and energetic. Why does Microsoft suck at marketing so much?

pretty cool and unique. It shows how it's not just about the music, pics, and vids, but also about being social about what you listen to and watch....very cool. By the way, new website I see. Zune.net? doesn't seem to be up yet......

Ya Cesar, when's Zune.net gonna be up??

These commercials aren't going to move zunes of the shelves.What a waste of money. The average consumer sees this commercial and sees unfamiliar people being people.It isnt SELLING anything.

"pretty cool and unique." Cool and unique? Anyone could do that with an off the shelf video recorder. Three of the same. Very unimpressive.

Using YouTube? Bill's the phone wanting to know why it's not on Soapbox. :)

Whose song is that in 'battle'?

Good adds...i really liked it. Does not have snob value to it. more like real people. I liked it.

Even an ad with Bob Dylan has a fresher, hipper and cooler feel to it than these. http://www.apple.com/ipod/ads/dylan/

Good start. It took a while for me to get the idea of "welcome to the social", but I got there. As for the energy everyone is talking about, all you need to do is to get a really hip song and it will do all of the work... Also, why not have someone sharing a song from the stage to the crowd when the crowd just heard a live performance? Seems like a cool, social idea to me! Keep at it guys!

Tim - I don't know what planet you're on.. Vinyl is still the choice for most DJs for mixing.

man... those are the most "off the point" ads i've seen in a while... i really don't want my next mp3 player be an ipod... really... but you guys are doing everything to make zune dead on arrival... this is how you make an original commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K8GYl5-xrM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZLD2YK8rXQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDAdTdWMZ5g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyI5OnECBoM Selling a slogan instead of the product? I wonder how many people will remember to check out Zune next time they are at BestBuy? Does the term "focus group" mean anything to the Zune group? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_group

Alex G: thanks for the great references to creative AND informative commercials. These zune ads are piss poor. Not that a bloated Bono is any better, but why can't MS run a commercial that has some creativity and style? Marketing department is made up of too many upper middle class white drone clones. Get some street cred MS. Or get some creative agency. These spots are excruciatingly LONG, uniformative and unoriginal. What you think is cutting edge or experimental is just a waste of bandwidth.

"why can't MS run a commercial that has some creativity and style?" Because these things, creativity and style, are a reflection of the people running the company. The very top people. Steve Ballmer. Look at the "Developers! Developers! Developers!" video (a.k.a. the Monkey Boy Video) and you'll understand why there's no creativity or style.

I like the music alot and the videos are alive and full of energy. Very different from those boring white background commercials that another computer company runs. I can guess that these commercials are very inexpensive on the production end too (using mostly live footage). Great job! I'm looking forward to testing out the device in a couple weeks.

James Kim (cnet) just posted a 2 min video review of the Zune! http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6131761.html?part=rss

Ok, let me get this straight. Microsoft fails to register zune.com, so they are left with zune.net. Microsoft still doesn't have a website up yet, 2 weeks before release. Microsoft makes Zune commercials that show like 5 seconds of the actual device and 10 minutes of people dancing. lol Does Microsoft hire their marketing team from a crack house? Bad bad bad

Hey Cesar, Will you please post the name of the bands and song names in the comercials. I like them a lot. I was scared that MS will try to make adds like iPod. Its good they did not. I like the ways its so un iPod like. It might displease a lot of people but I am sure Zune is going to get serious followers because of these. It strikes a different cord. Very different from iPod. Great work. Just keep it coming.

I like everything about those commercials. People having fun, and the ads don't slam iPod or competitors. That shows some class. Great job you guys. Harvey http://www.zunerama.com

guys I don't know about you, but I like the ads. they show the social-ness of the zune AND actually show the product, contrary to what some are saying. You have to remember at the end they do show Zune in big letters with a picture of the device. ( at least they did in the commercial at the cine )

Got to say those ad's wouldn't sell the product to me. Where's the edginess, the uniqueness - to me and the group of uni friends (that I just showed the video's to) the ad's don't say anything about the device or even show the device for more then 2 seconds. One of the guy's who's never seen the Zune before actually said he thought it was an ad for a concert coming up and asked if the Zune concerts are showing in our city. From marketing courses I've taken I've always been told that in order to get your possible customers buying your product you've got to show WHY they should by it, what makes it so much better then the competition? All I took from that add was "an iPod like device", "some random screen showing connecting - does that mean I have to wait for a long time for it to load?, "why are a bunch of grungy people and bad music getting splashed all over my tv", "what is Zune, and what's so social about it".

Has Microsoft ever heard of 'celebrity endorsements'? Microsoft take a page from the NBA,NFL,Nike,Reebok and even apple on how to advertise and market products.

Yeeek... bit long and boring on most of those, not enough focus on the product. See where MS is trying to go, but it won't work for most people, especially when most of the world doesn't know what a Zune is. It won't attract people new to Zune, and it won't convert people who have already decided against the Zune, so they really only work for the people who already "get" and like the Zune "social" message. And people would bring Zunes to concerts? Why? Anyway, these look like they'd be more appropriate for a beer commercial.

still no zune.net website ?? release is within weeks and theres still nothing there.. With all the money and experience of MS - they just dont get it to they? They seem to have lost touch with the consumers. Was watching a video the other night of Robert. interviewing the Product Manager of Zune - that guy was so boring and just didnt know how to have a luagh... how did he get the job??? MS need to get their act together otherwise people will just go out and buy that iPOD.

After viewing the little animations on comingzune I thought the marketing would be fun and creative. Oh dear, those adverts are not creative, boring and are to long. In one word these adverts are bland. MS obviously got cold feet and decided they didn’t want to go down the animation root. I can just imagine the conversation in the marketing department. "If this is a social product we have to show people, birds and rabbits aren’t in our user demographic”. The marketing people dropped the ball completely on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-AJrnJNZb4 I've watched this video. I loved the song. Anybody knows the song name or the singer?

The band is: CSS The song is: Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex And thats more like it :) Something fun, light hearted and viral.

First off: Who are the bands in the Picnic and Battle spots? Second: So you all invited the hipster indie mp3 bloggers out to Seattle to view the product. But you didn't tell us you shot a commercial with them! :~) I like the way the Zune ads are very lifestyle-heavy instead of graphics-heavy, like every other gadget commercial out there. (Not saying graphics are bad, but it's refreshing to see something different.) These ads peak my interest because it doesn't tell me everything about the device. I may be alone on that, but that's how I feel. So, um... who are the bands? :~)

Oh, oh... I forgot to ask if it were true that you guys were planning on running a Super Bowl ad, too? Someone from your camp said so, I think. And what's up with no CSS ("Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above") in the spots? Of course, now that I think of it, Death from Above 1979 has broken up. *sadface*

ZUNE.NET is UP AND RUNNING!

Does anyone know the band or the song for the Battle commercial?

I guess these are OK iPod ads. The earphones look funny, though.

I'm a little torn over the ads. M$ is going after the new crop of kids that are out to buy a new mp3 player. That is their market. I can't see how ADHD'd-out kids would find this commercial the least bit interesting or engaging. Half an hour in to it you don't even know whats going on. However, that's the lure of the commercial. Wait, what is this? It's clearly not the ipod becuase I'm not having a brain anyerism from the colors. Hmm...tell me more, tell me more. So yeah it does create a sort of mystique to them, but I just don't know if kids who have *overwhelmingly* shown that they prefer a crazy, color filled, celebrity endorsed ipod will suddenly prefer this sorta ad. I'm just sayin'.

welcome to teh suck

I tend to agree with gamesix. The ads look like a too-long MTV promotion, with just a few glimpses of the product. I don't know what Apple and their ad agancy are thinking with this Zune campaign.

The question has been asked so many times, but no one has answered. Doesn't anyone know the name of the band in battle commercial?

Not to be mean...but I was not impressed with these commercials. I've preordered a Zune and am looking forward to the music player and believe it's great, yet I have to say, Apple must have a better marketing department. I don't care for "Welcome to the social" or the commercials presented. They definitely didn't sell me on buying one. Only one commercial really shows the device being used. I see social events...yet not really showing the device. You're selling the Zune, right? You're not selling concert tickets or time with friends, right? At least with Apple, they show the device being used and it looks like fun to use. I've owned an iPod (and sold it soon after)...and look forward to the Zune's features (larger screen, no iTunes, no AAC, better support for file formats, etc.), yet think the Ads need some work.

actually, i really like the ads. they are different and fresh and despite what a lot of people are saying on here i think they are actually very effective. the fact that the ad doesnt give away 100% what a zune is makes the viewer very interested in finding out more about it so it stays in their mind. i also think cesar and the team have done a good job on zune.net everything about zune has really grown on me and the approach is so different to what apple and all the other mp3player companies have taken makes it fresh and pretty cool. one thing though, please please make sure that zune reaches ireland and the rest of europe anytime sooner than 2008, i really wanna try out the zune pass. to sum up, well done to the zune team.

I really like them. They are very natural and totally deliver the Zune messege.

Pink Sage, you've made a good point. We were watching the ads in the marketing dept at work and the word "natural" was used to describe the ads by a couple of people. I dig the way the spots don't seem "over-produced". It's a nice change. P.S. There are more spots on Zune.net. The one called "Spinners" is nice.

Speaking of ads, here's a scan from Sears' "Black Friday" ad showing the Zune for sale: http://bfads.net/pop/2389

The song for Battle is "Don't Look Away" by The Helio Sequence.

Perfect commercials! shows REAL people in REAL contexts... Clearly illustrates the social aspect of Zune versus the individualism/conformism of the boring commercials I will not name here...

Comment deleted by Cesar. feel free to repost without curse words. This is a family show.

Sorry about that. Lame and boring ads. It looked home-made and amateurish. Apple should be laughing at Cupertino.

I am a big fan of Zune, and I will buy one on Nov 14, but I have to agree at how bad these commercials are. They are long, unfocused & confusing. After watching them, I am now LESS EXCITED about buying one. As someone else already asked, "Does Microsoft hire their marketing team from a crack house?"

Terrible, amateurish and, worst of all, at least for a music player --dorky, out of date, totally lacking in cool.  I'm shocked at how bad these are.  I don't think the Zune is great, but it's better than these commercials.