Posted by Charles // Tue, Dec 6, 2005 2:32 PM
Did you know that Steve Ballmer gives between 125 and 150 talks a year? Do you know what it’s like to write, coordinate, organize, compose, direct and manage those 125+ speeches a year for one of the busiest CEO’s in the world? Watch this video with Katy Hunter who does this job every day for Steve Ballmer and find out why she loves working for Microsoft in another edition of our new show featuring cool women with cool jobs, WM_IN. (And you thought you knew what death by PowerPoint meant . . . not as much as Katy! 
Show: WM_IN
Tags: MS+Personalities, Marketing
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| Video Length: 00:23:47
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Replies:
37
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26,949
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Beer28
I contend Channel9 is a covert research project
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I'm going to watch this in a bit, but if I had to prepare for a job where I had to write speeches for Steve Ballmer, I'd get plenty of vinyls that skip to prepare for the job.
"move the needle on the turntable beer, that's annoying", no, no, I'm working on Steve Ballmer's speech......
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 | Beer28 wrote:
I'm going to watch this in a bit, but if I had to prepare for a job where I had to write speeches for Steve Ballmer, I'd get plenty of vinyls that skip to prepare for the job.
"move the needle on the turntable beer, that's annoying", no, no, I'm working on Steve Ballmer's speech......
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Beer, I'm afraid this post makes little sense. What?
Also, how about watching the video first, then commenting on it? Seems like a logical pattern.
C
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i think as he does once in a while, beer is critisizing something  maybe he's referring to ballmer's style of repeating words in his sentences as a means of emphasis (which i like). i remember that my only preparation for an english test once has been watching an internet broadcast of one of ballmer's keynotes.. it worked out quite well
regards,
martin.
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One word... "Developers, developers, developers, developers..."
On the other hand, it is good to know that not all CEO's are cookie cutter business types.
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Minh
Does this make my head look fat?
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Speaking of hating your computer but loving a font, there is definitely a emotional component to your computer that I think MS has long ignored -- or couldn't fullfil because of one reason or another. XP was supposed to be about the user eXPerience, and it's a good first step. Vista is supposed to be the user experience promise land -- I don't really have a question about a non-existant product, I guess. Just hoping 2006 will be the year the UX matures. Whether from the Apple or MS side, I don't care.
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Beer28
I contend Channel9 is a covert research project
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| Charles wrote:
Beer, I'm afraid this post makes little sense. What?
Also, how about watching the video first, then commenting on it? Seems like a logical pattern.
C |
It would have made sense had you seen some of his past speeches( or even his interview with Scoble for instance ).
At any rate, it was a nice video, but not in my field. I made it 2 minutes in, which is pretty good for a video that doesn't deal with technology for me. It definately could be interesting for speech writers and PR people though.
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| Beer28 wrote:
At any rate, it was a nice video, but not in my field.
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Yet you were the first to comment...
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Doesn't anybody find it rather amazing that Ballmer gives 125-150 speeches per year? Can you imagine doing that? I can't... Wow.
C
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| Charles wrote:
Doesn't anybody find it rather amazing that Ballmer gives 125-150 speeches per year? Can you imagine doing that? I can't... Wow.
C |
I usually love C9 videos, but for some strange reason.... this feels like a PR video. I can't put my finger on it, but it sounds like a 23 minute 47 second commercial. You do much better interviewing the devs then the marketing people.
Some people like marketing... not me lol.
I guess to be fair the PR people are probably just as important as the product developers, that's the sad part of the world today.
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Minh
Does this make my head look fat?
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| DevilsRejection wrote:
I guess to be fair the PR people are probably just as important as the product developers, that's the sad part of the world today.
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Why is that sad?
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We don't do "PR" videos on C9!!!
We are trying to paint an accurate picture of Microsoft. And, as you must know, Microsoft employs more non-developers than developers. We have some of the most talented marketing people in the business, you know.
We are increasing the the breadth of what we cover on C9. This doesn't mean we will decrease the number of technical interviews. I promise!
Marketing has no place on Channel 9 (from our Doctrine). This means, that we don't use Channel 9 as a way to market our products. It does NOT mean that we can't interview interesting people who work in Marketing. Make sense?
Channel 9: It's about people too.
C
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| Minh wrote:
| DevilsRejection wrote:
I guess to be fair the PR people are probably just as important as the product developers, that's the sad part of the world today.
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Why is that sad?
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Sega Freaking Dreamcast.
Ask anyone in the industry, and the moment you say those 2 words a tear sheds for one of the best damn consoles released ever, that died because of little, crappy marketing.
Hey Microsoft.... buy Sega! Bungie is a one hit wonder, they got the same Halo franchise over and over again. You want a powerhouse... S-E-G-A
| Charles wrote:
We don't do "PR" videos on C9!!!
We are
trying to paint an accurate picture of Microsoft. And, as you must
know, Microsoft employs more non-developers than developers. We have
some of the most talented marketing people in the business, you know.
We
are increasing the the breadth of what we cover on C9. This doesn't
mean we will decrease the number of technical interviews. I promise!
Marketing
has no place on Channel 9 (from our Doctrine). This means, that we
don't use Channel 9 as a way to market our products. It does NOT mean
that we can't interview interesting people who work in Marketing. Make
sense?
Channel 9: It's about people too.
C |
I'll hold you to that promise Charles
One thing that I would like to see, many vidcasts offer 3 options, streaming, low quality download (basically a downloadable copy of the stream) and then crazy high quality version.
It satisfies everyone in my honest opinion, and it isn't wasted bandwidth because those on dial up won't dare touch 1GB+ files, and those who want the nice quality can get it!
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Beer28
I contend Channel9 is a covert research project
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| Charles wrote:
And, as you must know, Microsoft employs more non-developers than developers. We have some of the most talented marketing people in the business, you know.
C |
No, actually i didn't know that, but I believe it. Those people from redhat that made those "propoghanda videos" as you refered to them are pretty hot too. They're not only marketing videos but they're artistic and well thought out as well.
Microsoft's marketing is good but it's generic compared to smaller companies like Redhat and Novell. They're marketing is more personal and homebrew in nature, and it strikes a chord with people like me.
As for Steve giving so many speeches, well, it sucks to be him i guess(except for that being a billionaire part).
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Interesting video - it's good to know where a marketing person comes
from as a technical person so you understand how to reach out to them
and be realistic in promises you make to clients. After all,
these marketing people deal with the crap that clients often throw at
them (and also extra money at times when successful). It must be
a very interesting thing to write speeches for SteveB. I'd think
Steve Ballmer could choose to give as many or as few talks as he wishes
(within reason) in a year and he chooses to get out there and get his
face out there. She makes a good point though - u can have some
people who at the same time hate their computer and love a certain
font. Too bad there wasn't more a focus on style/beauty at MS
compared with Apple...
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Yeah, poor steve 120-125 speeches a year. However does he do it?
Amazing. Clearly CEO work is not all gravy.
Anyways..nice vid!
So, since this is apparently Women at microsoft week...when's the next amanda silver video?
No not because of the obvious reasons, i'm just really in to VB.
Really I am.
- LB
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Maybe I'm just an ultra informed consumer, but to me the ULTIMATE MARKETING isn't a million dollar commercial, isn't some crazy original idea, it's everyday people talking about something.
if you can look me straight in the face, be a normal consumer just like me, and say ABC is AMAZING. then i go online, google it up a bit, and then i ask the world, not the news sites, the world, what do you think of ABC, depending on that then i am even further intrigued!
living in a net world, the last step is hard, but trying something out in real life, seals the freaking deal. i mean seeing a 360 degree snapshot of a camera you want to buy, and holding and playing with it, are 2 COMPLETLY different things.
If your product is good, then you don't need marketing, your customers will all be evangalists. if microsoft how much i pimp one note to my fellow students then i would be put on the payroll! i don't do it because it's crap, i do it because that application.... simply rocks.
i even emailed you about it Beer, asking if theres anything like it, and like you said, nothing comes close.
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| Charles wrote:
Doesn't anybody find it rather amazing that Ballmer gives 125-150 speeches per year? Can you imagine doing that? I can't... Wow.
C |
Bill Gates' a natural speaker too eh? I always thought Bill would have that soft geek voice, but you can sorta tell he's really used to talking. He had quite a booming voice in that last interview on C9.
Steve... well we all know Steve's full of energy
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GaryBushey
The blob in the upper right hand corner is my dog
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The real question that didn't get asked. Did she write the infamous "Developers" speech? 
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| Charles wrote:
We don't do "PR" videos on C9!!!
We are trying to paint an accurate picture of Microsoft. And, as you must know, Microsoft employs more non-developers than developers. We have some of the most talented marketing people in the business, you know.
We are increasing the the breadth of what we cover on C9. This doesn't mean we will decrease the number of technical interviews. I promise!
Marketing has no place on Channel 9 (from our Doctrine). This means, that we don't use Channel 9 as a way to market our products. It does NOT mean that we can't interview interesting people who work in Marketing. Make sense? |
No...through Channel 9 you are marketing a "better, friendlier Microsoft" in terms of people. It's called "trying to repair your image" (in a more personal way) in the public's eye. Many organizations do this through other means such as positive press releases, getting "face time" with the local news networks, etc.
So...Channel 9 is about image adjustment. You fix the longstanding image problems Microsoft has, make it more "personal" to people, and the end result is you sell more product.
That's marketing, but in a roundabout way. It does not change the underlying business practices that go on here...it just sort of "diverts your attention".
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| GaryBushey wrote:
The real question that didn't get asked. Did she write the infamous "Developers" speech? |
Watch for the follow-up video: "Steve Ballmer's Choreographer".
Then, of course, everyone will want to see the "Steve Ballmer Workout" video, in which his personal tainer demonstrates the chair-toss exercise.
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| Wil wrote:
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GaryBushey wrote:
The real question that didn't get asked. Did she write the infamous "Developers" speech? | Watch for the follow-up video: "Steve Ballmer's Choreographer".
Then, of course, everyone will want to see the "Steve Ballmer Workout" video, in which his personal tainer demonstrates the chair-toss exercise. |
I personally would love a tour of the actual furniture factory where the chairs are made as a follow up video to that. Then, show me the physics of how a chair flies, and explain the kinetics of impact. Does a chair fly farther if you spin around first? Sort of like a discus throw I guess...
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| Charles wrote:
Marketing has no place on Channel 9 (from our Doctrine). This means, that we don't use Channel 9 as a way to market our products. It does NOT mean that we can't interview interesting people who work in Marketing. Make sense? |
And yet...
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2005/12/06/the-anti-marketing-marketing/
You might want to get your stories straight.
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| GaryBushey wrote:
The real question that didn't get asked. Did she write the infamous "Developers" speech? |
I guarantee that Ballmer came up with that on his own! As she said, he is very involved with what he actually says in his speeches (she's more of a guide than a "here, read this" kind of speechwriter...)
C
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| JChung2006 wrote:
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Charles wrote:
Marketing has no place on Channel 9 (from our Doctrine). This means, that we don't use Channel 9 as a way to market our products. It does NOT mean that we can't interview interesting people who work in Marketing. Make sense? |
And yet...
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2005/12/06/the-anti-marketing-marketing/
You might want to get your stories straight.
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That's an interpretation of what we do here (and a flattering one, I must admit). Simply, Channel 9 is what it is. We don't do overt marketing and the goal is not to change our image. The goals are to help make Microsoft a more open and transparent company, to spotlight the people who make our products, to provide a place for customers to watch us do what we do and provide feedback along the way. It's not just about videos, podcasts, and screencasts, either: Have you been to the Wiki lately?
Image changing and customer satisfaction improvements are wonderful consequences of what we (including you) do on Channel 9. These are not the reasons behind the things we do. Does this make sense?
Read our doctrine. That's the story. Still confused?
C
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