How Microsoft is Gaming Influencers and Algorithms with the Surface Duo

It’s a little bit brilliant.

I’ve written several editorials voicing my concerns about popularity algorithms and the responsibility of reviewers. We can’t escape the fact that online content creators need to be compensated for their work, but YouTube and Facebook style algorithms are designed to manipulate viewers into staying on a platform as long as possible. When those two objectives meet, it creates an echo chamber, a reinforcing cycle of confirmation bias which highlights and celebrates the most popular options. Any product outside the algorithm zeitgeist is dismissed as efficiently as possible.

Precious few smaller-volume sellers have successfully broken through this popularity trap.

What’s a manufacturer to do? Play the influencers against themselves!

Microsoft recently sent out the first wave of review devices for the Surface Duo, but shielded it behind one of the strictest embargoes I’ve ever seen.

It’s totally normal for a manufacturer to “stage” content for reviews. An early embargo is often relegated to unboxing, setup, and first impressions. Once the product is shipping to consumers, then we get a second stage for more in-depth reviews.

Microsoft has taken this idea one important step farther.

The Surface Duo’s early embargo is locked to unboxings. I’ve yet to see a video where the product was turned on or used. Numerous “first impressions” touting the engineering and the brilliant hinge design.

And that’s about it.

Tech subscribers on YouTube got a shotgun blast of “Surface Duo Hinge” commercials.

The criticisms facing the Surface Duo are obvious. I wrote a counterpoint editorial to this pre-review bashing for Windows Central. Chipset, battery, NFC, camera. We KNOW where the Duo might perform poorer than similarly priced single-screen phones.

The popularity algorithms demand a narrow view on what phones can be successful, so reviewers have to cater to the largest audiences. We’re even seeing editorials complaining that the Duo might be built TOO well. Microsoft is now too “fanatical” about making a mobile productivity device.

For all the areas where the Surface might succeed (incredible design and pushing the boundaries on software) we already know what the reviewer “deal breakers” will be. We know the Surface Duo won’t be reviewed for what it is, a niche productivity device. It’ll be compared to more popular gadgets which will win the implied recommendation.

Better luck next year Microsoft. Maybe Gen 2 or Gen 3.

Microsoft’s reaction to the influencer market is a little bit brilliant.

If the online tech community has become this predictable, why not play directly into how an influencer operates?

Getting early access is CRITICAL to a channel’s popularity, growth, and monetization. If you want early access to the Surface Duo, you have to play by Microsoft’s embargo rules.

If we know techies will groan about chipset, camera, NFC, and battery, then lock those categories out of the first wave of videos. There are some folks grumbling about design cues like larger forehead and chin bezels. Lock that out too. In fact, let’s really play this safe and no one should even be turning the Duo on in their videos.

What’s left to talk about?

The shockingly thin build and the wrap-around hinge design that probably would have been casually disregarded in a full review.

That’s how predictable tech reviews have become.

It wouldn’t have mattered that the Surface Duo has a revolutionary hinge design that we’ve only seen successfully implemented on laptops. That wouldn’t be “worth it” enough to justify a higher price tag.

The Galaxy Fold hinge was about the only part of the phone that was universally praised last year, but Samsung is more popular, so reviewers will seek out the positive for Samsung. “Everyone” has already decided the Duo is too expensive, so an even better industrial design still couldn’t be worth it.

But now we have something a little different.

A whole collection of videos where all the presenters have to talk about is a pretty box, and a pretty design. Microsoft made influencers focus on the signature premium hardware feature of the phone.

This play has a secondary benefit.

YouTube weights the “timeliness” of a topic in a popularity score.

If you take your time to craft a well-researched in-depth review, detailing the lifestyle use of a product after using it for a longer period of time, your hard work will often be wrecked by the algorithm. That ship has sailed. We’ve moved on. The early videos scored well. The demand trailed off. We’re “done” with that topic. Try a fresh trending topic if you want your channel to grow faster!

The first wave of Surface Duo videos? Pretty box. Pretty hinge.

This is intense product commentary control. Casting a huge net for potential consumers to find the phone, with a popular YouTube host glowing about the packaging experience. Then, if that consumer is really interested in digging deeper on what the Surface can do, they won’t be able to find traditional reviewer videos. The most visible video detailing how the phone actually works comes directly from Microsoft.

Someone looking for more info on the Duo will probably land on the presentation hosted by Panos Panay emotionally demonstrating some of the more powerful features of the device and the software Microsoft has been working on.

We can all pretend that buying a phone is a purely rational consideration of features and price where one device can “win” on merit, but we all know that there’s a HUGE emotional component which can override more rational considerations. Appealing to that emotion is critical for broader success.

An “average consumer” casually looking up a Surface today will find a glowing unboxing, and might land on Panay’s Passionate Product Presentation. That’s a LOT of positive feels in a short period of time.

Subsequent videos on the Surface Duo will still score decent traffic. Teardown and durability videos will certainly perform well. We just know that thanks to YouTube, the bulk of the views on a new gadget happen early.

It’s such a simple adjustment to the normal review embargo, but it’s a critical application of strict rules, directing the conversation where Microsoft wants the discussion to go.

It’s a little bit brilliant.