The fleeting appearance on YouTube of a video reportedly shown at Microsoft's MGX conference in Atlanta is causing a stir this morning because of what appeared, at first, to be stylish new logos for the company's consumer brands -- Xbox, Windows, Office, etc. As it turns out, the designs are not replacement logos but instead part of a specially created closing animation for a new Microsoft marketing campaign.

The tagline, as shown in the video: "Be What's Next."

Which is actually more interesting than new logos, anyway. One of the central criticisms of Microsoft in the tech industry is that it's too often the follower -- not the company leading the world toward what's "next" but rather the one trying to replicate the stuff that its competitors have already done. The tagline, on the other hand, tries to position Microsoft as bringing cutting-edge technology to the masses.

Here's the video, as captured by Engadget before it was removed.

To understand what Microsoft is trying to accomplish with the closing montage, it's worth looking back at our Q&A earlier this year with David Webster, chief strategy officer in Microsoft's central marketing group, which appears in hindsight to have foreshadowed this campaign.

"Ultimately, even though Bing and Windows and Office and Windows Phones and Xbox are very different products, they all come from Microsoft," he said. "Those products and the stories they tell should add up to something for the company. Our thought was, we’re already going to be spending significant amounts of money marketing our consumer brands, why don’t we build the Microsoft brand through those?"

As taglines go, the new one is perhaps catchier and more up-to-date than "Your Potential, Our Passion," used by the company in the past. But as with any "brand promise," the challenge for Microsoft will be actually delivering on the "Be What's Next" message, which will be no small feat.

We've asked Microsoft for comment on the new campaign, and we'll update this post depending on the response. Given the timing, we may see it unveiled at Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting in Redmond next week.