Always have to caveat that I'm a Microsoft Kool-Aid drinker.after 13 years. 

In our house, myself, my wife, my daughter and my two step-kids have only PCs. 

The two step-kids chose PCs as replacements this holiday, one for better gaming and one because she wanted a green laptop (Dell).I use a Zune and I have Windows Phone. 

The wife who, is ex-Microsoft, has an iPhone. All the kids have iPods and one has an iTouch. 

My wife and I constantly battle to see who can find stuff faster on the phone and it's fun (ok, very geeky).there is one time I always grab her phone though and that's to control the Sonos music system in the house.killer app in our house no question, so I'm not a hater by any means.

But I digress, the point of this piece is branding with mobile advertising.  No question there have been some great apps built for the iPhone and those that hit the home-run likely are very happy (don't have too many stats on brand lift / purchase intent lift / etc.) 

I do know for the Microsoft assets that in the US we reach 47% of the mobile audience (25.5 million) across some very premium experiences (MSN, Windows Live, Bing.com, MSNBC, Fox Sports) and that's before our Verizon partnership went live earlier this month. 

I need to qualify though, that these experiences extend to the iPhone and Blackberry and Gphone too.  Anywhere there is a mobile browser, there are Microsoft mobile advertising opportunities.

More importantly, advertisers who are utilizing Microsoft Mobile Media see dramatic lift to the tune of 290% increase in unaided brand awareness, 193% increase in message association, 70% increase in brand favorability and 140% increase in purchase intent. 

Staggering numbers, I know.I sometimes think people forget about the reach of our mobile sites and the usage of the services because of the hype of iPhone, Blackberry, etc vs. Windows phones...we are so much more than Windows phones and always will be: we offer an amazing vehicle to reach a very engaged audience. 

Even better, we can offer solutions across mobile, PC, TV, and even Surface! 

Check out the options at http://advertising.microsoft.com/mobile-advertising

And if you wonder how strong the Kool-Aid can get around Redmond, I have seen previews of the next versions of Windows Phones.

I think we'll continue to be a strong player (maybe more than that ;-)

Mark

P.S. With the launch this week of our new search experience - www.Bing.com - browse to http://m.bing.com and let us know what you think of the mobile offering!