Zune takes 'social' tack to slay iPod giant; MS music player to focus on sharing, paint Apple device as gear for loners.(Microsoft Corp.)(Apple Computer Inc.)

Advertising Age, November, 2006 by BULIK, BETH SNYDER; CUNEO, ALICE Z.

Byline: BETH SNYDER BULIK And ALICE Z. CUNEO

acuneo@crain.com

Call it the iPod strategy killer.

Microsoft is launching a marketing blitz for its upcoming Zune music player that, unlike the loner aura cultivated by the iPod, pushes the social side of music. Microsoft's idea is that Zune will turn you from the solitary chrysalis who listens to Apple's music player into a social and sociable butterfly.

Zune, which offers users the ability to share their music wirelessly with others, doesn't officially hit the market until this week. But already many of the online and offline creative marketing executions, videos, concepts and footage under the tagline "Welcome to the social'' have made their way onto the web. From high-art to...

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