Microsoft’s ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ campaign earned the platform a lot of media exposure – not all of it positive – and helped to highlight to the general public just how good the Windows Phone OS is, alongside its rival smartphones. Microsoft put its money where its mouth was with that campaign, offering an on-the-spot prize of $100 to those that managed to beat Windows Phone.
So successful was the campaign that Nokia later launched its own version – ‘Blown Away by Lumia’ – sometimes with comical results, while Samsung tried a similar campaign to promote its Galaxy Note "phablet", although the impact of that effort was arguably less effective.
Windows Phone UK is launching yet another variation on the theme, which it’s calling ‘Dare to Live’. According to My Kind Of Phone (the official Windows Phone UK blog), the concept seems to be broadly similar to Smoked by Windows Phone, with owners of rival smartphones competing against the Windows Phone OS in a challenge, and winning £20 on the spot if they win.
But if Windows Phone gives their device a damned good spanking, the users don’t have to stand next to a sign and announce that their precious handset lost out to a Microsoft mobile. That would be far too lenient for the good people of the United Kingdom. Instead, they’ll have to participate in a high-adrenaline ‘Hero Dare’.
From tightrope-walking to the ‘reverse bungee’ of the Big Air, the punishment for being ‘spanked by Windows Phone’ is indeed severe – but it also sounds like fiendishly good fun.
Dare to Live kicks off this Saturday (21 April) in London at the enormous Westfield Shopping Centre in White City, where the campaign’s first losers will be walking the tightrope. Check out the campaign Facebook page for more info on when the Dare To Live Tour will be hitting a UK location near you, along with photos and videos from the gallery, and links to online and smartphone demos of Windows Phone for Android and iPhone.