Will Microsoft's push of XP alter focus from brand to product? (Live Issue/Microsoft).(Brief Article)

In the current economic climate, a client with a $200 million marketing spend burning a hole in its trousers seems like some sort of mythical creature: a phoenix rising from the ashes of the economic downturn.

But this $200 million is exactly the amount of corporate weight that Microsoft has thrown behind last Thursday's global launch of XP, the replacement for Windows ME.

But wait a minute, it doesn't stop there. Microsoft has promised it will spend $1 billion on marketing over the next few months -- we're getting toward the realms of the obscene here.

Or are we? At first glance a global budget of $200 million for XP seems impressive, but in the UK it's a decidedly more believable 10 million [pounds sterling], half for above the line and half for below. The above-the-line spend breaks down to 2.5 million [pounds sterling] on TV and 1.25 million [pounds sterling] each on print and radio.

In no way is this sort of money going to make the same impact as the Windows 95 "Start me up" campaign that never seemed to leave our screens.

Rhian Mackenzie, the McCann-Erickson group account director on Microsoft, says: "It's enough to do a good job." And she may be right when you consider that, according to IT observers, approximately 80 per cent of its sales for the operating system are preinstalled sales, that is, it's already in the computer when you buy it.

Surely this means the campaign must be more of a branding exercise and a showing off by the client of what its new baby can do -- driving increased sales may not be the priority.