Search results matching tag 'microsoft advertising'

Advertising Week 2009 Videos, Photos & Twitter

980070 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:47:00 GMT

I mentioned last week I was going to blog live from Advertising Week in New York from the 21st September.

Well we've just launched our Advertising Week 2009 social media hub which will bring the conferences news, views and opinions to the masses in the form of videos, a Twitter feed, blog posts and a photo gallery.

If you can't make it to the event then do check back to this resource every now and again to see what's going on in the Big Apple!

I'll be blogging here on Media Week too...

Why I may be out of a job?

2545128 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:08:00 GMT

With the news that Yahoo and MSN are back courting each other, I thought it relevant to talk about the (not so) recent MSN advertising summit. Actually, the fact I can talk about it at all is something to be celebrated. All too often entry to these events is dependent upon donning a pair of NDA handcuffs. MS did consider this, but then removed the requirement in a gesture of openness. Hopefully others will follow suit.

Convergent (and synchronised) consumption means that digital advertising, through different forms, is becoming both ubiquitous and fragmented at the same time. Think: mobile, display, TV, video, search, gaming, etc... With people jumping between digital mediums at an ever increasing rate, it’s becoming increasingly important to integrate the advertising media.

Channel integration has been an industry buzzword for a long time, but I would say the evidence suggests it’s falling far short of what the technology is capable of. Media is better when it’s tailored, and failing to recognise you have a heterogeneous audience and deliver targeted, integrated messaging is opportunity and budget wasted.

The issue probably lies with the level of technical and resource requirement to build an all-encompassing media delivery system that delivers targeted messaging across all channels.

Historically, this has meant changing the agency structure and building the media strategy around the messaging delivery technology (usually the adserver), which is fraught with complexities. However, it looks as though MS may be about to make things a lot simpler.

When it launches, the new Microsoft advertising platform looks as though it will allow users to buy media across different channels and target that media dependent upon individual’s activity. For example, only showing car-insurance display ads to people who had Binged ‘car insurance’. (That’s Binged not binged, although I can’t get enough of searching for ‘car insurance’, as readers will know.)

At the moment, it just looks like search and display, but the hire of Ashley Highfield (of iplayer fame) and the recent launch of MS long-form streaming video (not to mention windows mobile and the Xbox) seem to be a strong indication that the MS ad platform will eventually offer complete and easy channel integration.

YaSoft, BingHoo, YaBing, MicroYa......

980070 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:50:00 GMT

Let’s face it, none of them have a really good ring do they?

What does sound good though is the deal!

When the announcement was made on Wednesday I was judging an SEO award where all the talk was about Google.

For the last 4 years not a week has gone past without someone asking me, “How are you going to increase query share?” & “When are you going to buy Yahoo!?”

We totally understand that in order to attract advertisers to adCenter we needed to have more share to make the return on time investment worth it. We also understand the frustration advertisers have felt at not being able to get their hands on more of what is largely regarded as the highest quality search traffic around.

Well now we’ve entered an agreement with the folks from Sunnyvale and the result is some serious competition in the search space.

Over the years, many an agency rep has told me in the halls of many a conference that they’re willing us on. Competition is key to their success and the success of the industry, creating an exciting market place and giving advertisers choice and control.

We’ve invested millions in adCenter and efficiency tools like the adCenter Desktop and the ground breaking Microsoft Advertising Intelligence – and don’t take my word for it either, just check out this post on our keyword research tool – so we’re definitely serious about this space and will continue innovating.

Bing is a great product. At the recent Search Summit I organised in London, the Bing demo went down extremely well. People could see that there’s a change coming in the way we search and the way we do business.

One thing advertisers hate is waste. All they want to know is how they could have spent that money more wisely. So you only have to take a look at what the Atlas Institute have been doing with Engagement Mapping to see Microsoft Advertising is not all about search, but that we understand the whole user journey past all digital touch points.

A huge global audience on MSN plus messenger and hotmail plus the Microsoft Media Network plus in-game advertising on Xbox and elsewhere plus windows mobile plus innovations like Photosynth and Surface equals a mouth watering menu of technologies, insight and audience that advertisers can tap into in one place.

I love this industry because there is never a dull moment. Technology and innovation moves so fast planning too far ahead almost seem counterintuitive. Rest assured, in 5-10 years ALL advertising will be digital and when that happens Microsoft will be one of those companies that have helped the industry get there by providing the very best software plus services, actionable insight and dogged determination to provide advertisers with the very best value and experience possible.

I still feel a bit silly that in 1997 I told a PC World advisor that I didn’t think the internet would "catch on".

I’m glad I saw the light (eventually) and proud to be part of the most exciting period in its evolution to date!

Cannes Lions 2009 – Countdown Begins

980070 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:42:00 GMT

This time next week I’ll be in Cannes for the International Advertising Festival – I know, I know, it’s a tough life!

Microsoft Advertising is sponsoring the event and we’ll be entertaining a raft of agencies and advertisers on the beach as well as in seminars and forums, most notably one hosted by Steve Ballmer who’ll be in town to pick up the Media Person of the Year Award from the organisers.

If you can’t make it you can follow all the action on our Cannes Lions 2009 Community Site and I’ll be posting here to the Microsoft Advertising Blog and to my personal blog throughout the week!

Check out the agenda here and let me know if you have a question you’d like to ask Steve at the event?!

Microsoft Charity Party This Weekend In Aid Of Barnados

980070 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:28:00 GMT

Our adCenter Team are throwing a party this Saturday in aid of Barnados in Central London.

It's part of a drive to raise £10k to re-vamp and spruce up the Sunrise Children's Center in Kent

Check out more details here:

http://www.justgiving.com/microsoftadvertisingcommunityproject

If you're interested in coming please email me through the blog or ping me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/MelCarson - and I'll sort you out some tickets!

It should be a great night and all for a very worthy cause!

Inspiration Anyone? Sequel To "Bring The Love Back" Video

980070 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:43:00 GMT

Follow up to the hilarious Bring The Love Back video from Microsoft Advertising :-)

Check out more at GetInspiredHere.Net