The Weirdness of Cloud Marketing

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Cloud vendors have put a lot of effort into marketing their products. Some of the results of these efforts are quite remarkable with Microsoft and OpenStack opting for rappers to represent their products. And Oracle choosing to feature a long monologue where the Stark industries CIO finds out about the benefits of Oracle’s cloud.

The Oracle campaing is modelled on the movie, IronMan 3. From the script, part of the conversation examines the benefits of Oracle’s cloud. “So as you can see, Stark Industries’ commitment to Oracle Cloud is ironclad, and with good reason,” Carter explained. “We’re tapping the industry’s broadest set of standards-based, integrated services application, social, platform, and infrastructure, all completely managed, hosted, and supported by Oracle. And given the mission-critical nature of our business, we didn’t have time to waste on integrating across multiple clouds.”

OpenStack Foundation have formed their own rap duo, Dope ‘N Stack producing two videos on the benefits of OpenStack’s cloud: Cloud Anthem and E.N.T.E.R.P.R.I.S.E.

Microsoft found a talented rapper in NoClue, a Seattle-based artiste. The result was a video produced in October 2012, celebrating the greatness of Windows Azure. The video has had a number of views, reaching 80,000 hits on Youtube compared to Dope ‘N Stack’s 16,000 views across both of theirs.

Rackspace has gone a different way and chosen a corporate slogan: “We’ve open-sourced the cloud”.  All Rackspace executives are using this to bombard individuals via a major media campaign.

Although these campaigns go against all sense, according to the Register, the companies behind them may be exploiting the very idea of improbability to create interest in their products.