Death in the dollhouse as Microsoft marketing reboots digital soap operas

These are hard times, even for the biggest brands. Facing existential crises, emergency board meetings are in full swing at multinationals Contoso, a huge marketing and sales outfit, and Fabrikam, the famous name in online fashion. Both are under threat from usurper Zava, a retailer so dazzlingly disruptive it is both a chain of DIY home improvement shops and flogger of intelligent athletic apparel.

Far-fetched and fictional? Meet Microsoft’s marketing. The equally far-fetched but astonishingly factual company has been using Contoso and Fabrikam and long-running made-up customers behind decades of fantasy case studies, training and other messaging duties. Now, it seems, they are being retired like superannuated replicants. In steps the fresh new face of Zava.

Fake entities have been with us forever. It’s easier to write a cogent narrative if it has recognizable characters in it, from the invention of fiction in ancient mythology to BigCo Widget ...