Founded in 1975, Microsoft spent 2021 promoting its Microsoft 365 apps and newly free Teams features to people working and connecting from home
Baxter on a video call from home in June 2021, the month of the Teams campaign. The image is not from the Microsoft campaign. Photo: Screenshot: Elana Gloger, Dear Grad Student
Microsoft featured Raven Baxter in two Instagram creator campaigns in 2021. Her Microsoft 365 posts went up that spring, and her Microsoft Teams "Get Together" posts followed on June 29.
The first campaign showed how creators use Microsoft 365 apps in their daily work. Baxter's carousel and Story set featured two tools she used in her science communication work. Microsoft Editor is a writing assistant that checks grammar and style. PowerPoint Presenter Coach gives feedback on a practice presentation.
The campaign ran as Microsoft reported growth in its consumer business. On April 27, its quarterly earnings release said Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers had "increased to 50.2 million." The Personal and Family plans behind that number had launched worldwide in April 2020, with Editor and Presenter Coach among the features named for subscribers.
Microsoft's own research showed the strain of remote work. In March, its 2021 Work Trend Index surveyed 31,092 workers in 31 markets. It found that 54 percent felt overworked and 39 percent felt exhausted.
Microsoft returned for a second campaign in June. Baxter wrote and produced a carousel and a Story set on the theme "Get Together." The campaign presented Teams as a way to keep family and friends connected across distance.
Six weeks earlier, on May 17, Microsoft had made Teams for personal life generally available, free on desktop, mobile and web. The release added Together mode and location sharing for families. During the COVID-19 pandemic, free group calls could run up to 24 hours with as many as 300 people. Microsoft's announcement, by corporate vice president Liat Ben-Zur, offered the features "because life's better when we get together."
Microsoft was founded in 1975. It describes its mission as "to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."
Baxter was then a doctoral candidate in curriculum, instruction and the science of learning at the University at Buffalo. She defended her dissertation in June 2021, weeks before the Teams posts went live.
Microsoft's announcement of Teams for personal life is on the Microsoft 365 blog, and its company history is on its facts page.
Paid partnership. Both campaigns were sponsored by Microsoft.
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