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That's an answer that can only come from seeing the campaign. Marketing isn't just enough. Microsoft has to do the right marketing.

According to today's Wall Street Journal, the advertising campaign will be something like "Windows, Without Walls." Reverse is the situation now. A bunch of walls stand between potential customers and Vista adoption. Reasons are many, with negative perceptions being high among them.

"Too many enterprise decision-makers are accepting out of hand all of the fear, uncertainty and doubt being proliferated on the Internet by those who do not know about which they speak," said C. Marc Wagner, a services development specialist at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Crash Course Marketing

Marc rightly identifies real perception problems. Many IT managers I have talked to are satisfied with Windows XP, and they have heard too much about Vista's compatibility and usability problems. It could take a whole lot of marketing to change widespread negative perceptions, assuming Microsoft can do so effectively.

I've got my doubts about what Microsoft can do. According to the Journal, Microsoft is paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to appear in some of the advertising. This wouldn't be Jerry's first stand-up gig for Vista. Last year, HP featured the comedian in "The Computer Is Personal Again" commercials. In November, Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, told me that Microsoft would do more co-marketing campaigns like HP's.

Newer HP marketing "Crash Course" features Shaun White giving "tips for school and beyond." I have to laugh. Why would any PC company use "crash" in marketing a Windows PC?

I'm wondering about what's really coming, when the ad campaign launches, which, according to the Journal, will be in early September. The supposed "Windows, Without Walls" campaign uses comedians, just like HP's "The Computer Is Personal Again" campaign. Are the Journal's rumors mixed up? Will Microsoft and HP be working together? Or is Microsoft just lifting ideas from HP's campaign?

Several of my colleagues called HP's Jerry Seinfeld ads "silly." I think they're OK, but Microsoft would have to do a whole lot better to turn around negative Vista perceptions. The Journal claims the new ads would also feature Microsoft's semi-retired chairman. Does nobody at Microsoft remember the debacle of putting together Bill Gates with Jon Stewart for the Consumer Electronics Show keynote a few years back? If Jon Stewart can't make Bill Gates funny, nobody can—not even Jerry Seinfeld.