Microsoft Advertising Blog

dmexco 2010 – Hear Marc Bresseel Speak in Cologne

2010-09-03T09:07:00Z

On the 16th of September our VP for Global Agencies at Microsoft Advertising – Marc Bresseel – will be speaking at the dmexco Conference in Germany’s beautiful city of Cologne.

His session will take place in the dmexco Congress Hall at 12.15pm-1pm, and he’ll be talking about multiscreen advertising.

From the agenda:

Navigating a chaotic consumer landscape: Can multi-screen campaigns break down the barriers?

Incremental fragmentation of the consumer landscape means that it’s no longer enough to deliver a message that resonates on the TV screen, pc screen or mobile screen. To truly connect with the consumer your message must resonate on multiple screens. So how many screens does it take and how do you break through to create compelling experiences that engage consumers emotionally? Join Marc Bresseel to review examples of multi-screen approaches that are delivering impactful results and why.

I’ve had the opportunity to interview Marc a couple of times in Cannes and about his Global Agencies Team.

His wealth of experience in media, coupled with his compelling presentation style, will certainly add to what is set to be an engaging 45 minutes of insight into the future of advertising across multiple devices.

Follow our Germany team on Twitter and check out our German Advertising site for more information in their local language.

Cheers,

Mel

Maybe It’s Time to Start Listening to Each Other?

2010-09-02T14:34:00Z

One thing I’ve realized lately is there is a lot of talking going on in the industry but not a lot of listening.

And worst of all, a lot of talk about tactics and not a lot of strategic dialogue.

Maybe I should just stop this blog now and get to the point; we need more dialogue about Marketing and Marketing Strategy and less about Digital Vs. Traditional, Display Vs. Search, Social Vs. Earned Media, etc.

I’ve started to do meetings with customers with no slides (hard for a Microsoft guy to not show off the cool stuff in PowerPoint 2010) and encourage the dialogue of what they’re really trying to do with their customers and not just tactics.

So, I’ll stop talking!

Send me some feedback…what are the strategic marketing issues we should be talking about as an industry!!

I’m listening,

Mark

General Manager of Marketing at Microsoft Advertising

Talking B2B Social Media ROI at SES Hong Kong 2010

2010-09-01T11:45:00Z

Just a quick note to say I’ll be travelling down to Asia for Search Engine Strategies Hong Kong the week after next.

It’s the first time the event has been held there, so should be a fascinating immersion into all the online marketing activities in the region.

I’ve been honoured to be asked to speak on the keynote discussion panel on the second day – Tuesday 14th September.

From the agenda:

Keynote Panel: Increasing ROI through B2B Lead Generation

For the first time, three major B2B media players will sit on one panel to share their insights on B2B lead generation and vertical search in the world's fastest growing region.

Tactical approaches for online lead generation.

Strategies for B2B vertical search marketing.

How to convert online leads for offline business.

Learn from big search marketing advertisers; what are their search marketing and strategy plans?

The moderator will be Eddie Choi from the SES Advisory Board & Managing Director of Frontiers Digital.

On the panel with me will be Peter Zapf, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Global Sources and Matthias Baur, Corporate e-Business Development Director, Reed Exhibitions.

We’ve been asked to present for 15 minutes so I’ll be talking about our team, how we started in the social media space, how we track ROI and delve a little into the content, tips and best practice from our Social Media White Paper (340KB PDF)

Check out the full agenda, and if you’re going to be at the event, let me know and be sure to say hi!

Cheers

Mel

Think Visibility 2010 – Microsoft Advertising Speaking on Social Media and Community

2010-08-25T10:28:00Z

Not long to go now before I catch a train up to Leeds in Yorkshire for the 2010 Think Visibility conference.

The event on Saturday 4th September is organised by Dom Hodgson.

It’s is a melting pot of ideas and expertise from all over the country, but focuses on folks who don’t always have the wherewithal to travel down to London for insight, tips, tricks and best practice.

I’ve been asked to kick off the show with a session on Social Media & Community.

From the conference website:

“Learning and Earning through Social Media - The Community team at Microsoft Advertising, have been engaging with advertisers and marketers all over the world using social media since 2006. This is their story of why the team got set up, how they've evolved, how they measure success and their theories on social media best practice.”

Personally I am really looking forward to the trip. I’ve heard great things about it, not least the great Yorkshire hospitality.

Cheers,

Mel

Microsoft Advertising Asia Digital Showcase Video and Online Marketing Resources

2010-08-24T09:40:16Z

Continuing our series of digital showcase videos, the team in Asia have followed our 2010 Global Digital Advertising Video and our European Online Advertising Video with one of their own.

The 3 minute spot shows a myriad of different ways our solutions specialists have helped brands reach huge numbers of consumers, with really rich and innovative digital creative.

If you’re interested in learning more about advertising in Asia do check out our Asia Advertising site which houses lots of data, case studies and more videos to help you get a feel for the region, and understand what opportunities Microsoft offers to help you reach your target audience.

They also have a Facebook Page and are on Twitter so do follow them for all the latest news from the region.

Don’t forget, if you’re from the area, you have until the 3rd September to enter the Digital Quotient Competition to win a trip to Spikes in Singapore.

Cheers

Mel

Attention Please: Advertising in the Age of Overload

2010-08-23T02:00:00Z

I believe the single most valuable asset for an advertiser today is to have someone’s undivided attention.

And that is the very thing that is growing scarcer by the day. I don’t need to tell you why—just take a look around the dinner table. If your home is anything like mine, chances are at least one member of your family is doing more texting than eating. Invariably, a TV is on somewhere nearby, and every few minutes or so, a cell phone rings. Quality dinner table conversation? Sometimes it feels like it’s on its way to extinction.

This techno-sensory overload, and its implications for human relationships, was the subject of a fascinating and much-discussed New York Times article. And a new book on internet overload, The Shallows, goes so far as to claim that the internet is rewiring our brains – a theory that is generating fans and foes alike.

But what hasn’t been addressed as directly is what this all means for advertisers who spend millions of dollars hoping that their message will break through the chaos, resonate with their audience, and ultimately lead consumers to spend money on their product or service. Yes, Nielsen has been beating the drum around multiscreen usage for some time, and their research shows a significant increase in the amount of media multitasking. But this data, while indispensible, doesn’t necessarily solve this fundamental problem: If and when your message reaches your audience, are they sufficiently engaged at that very moment to even care?

In many cases, the answer is no. The attention span of today’s ultra-wired consumer is simply too fragmented to allow for a deep, engaging experience with advertising. There are, however, some emerging media that invite interaction in a way that puts the user in control, thereby allowing them to engage on their terms.

One of these is Xbox LIVE, which is like the web in that the user can click on what they want, when they want, and yet also get the big screen, HD experience of TV. This ability to opt-in to a visually immersive experience is really the best of both worlds --and has been proven to get audiences to really pay attention.

We have a wealth of research that bears this out. We’ve taken the lead on innovative cross-media measurement, including measuring cognitive and emotional response to advertising. And what we’ve learned is that the Xbox LIVE environment is so deeply engaging, and that the audience is so intensely focused when they are on Xbox LIVE, that the result is increased brand awareness and recall when compared to traditional television ads. These results have been consistent across a number of advertiser case studies.

Of course, the ultimate campaign is one where you successfully surround consumers on all screens.

But I believe the TV screen is where a brand can have the most impact and generate the greatest interest-- providing the viewer is paying attention. When people are on Xbox LIVE, they are paying attention in unprecedented ways. And, increasingly, so are the marketers who want to reach them.

Thanks,

Mark Kroese - General Manager, Advertising Business Group

UK OFCOM Report Proves Multi-Screen is Marketing Manna

2010-08-19T11:16:00Z

Listening to BBC news this morning will have had marketers and advertisers in the UK and abroad waking up to smell the coffee.

Blanket coverage on TV, radio and the broadsheets here, talked extensively about OFCOM’s new Communications Market Report that delved deep into UK consumers’ media consumption across multiple devices.

Source: OFCOM Communications Report

As more and more people come online, they’re spending more time consuming media via internet channels. Although TV still rates pretty highly, the increased use of computers for watching video and TV programs “on demand”, coupled with the increased sophistication of mobile phone handsets and options to watch content on the move, means if you want to target your marketing message holistically, digital is a definite option.

We’ve been watching media consumption grow across multiple screens for some while now. The multi-screen research we released a few of weeks ago with Wunderman, certainly tallys very well with OFCOM’s study where we found:

“69 percent of multi-screen consumers believe that being able to access similar content (media and advertising) across different screens makes the content more useful and their media experience more relevant and informative.”

And when it comes to marketers targeting consumers across devices:

“80 percent of consumers surveyed expect improvement in the delivery of content and advertising across devices – and they report that these improvements will increase their engagement.”

Source: OFCOM Communications Report

From the report summary:

People spend on average seven hours a day consuming different media, but they squeeze in 8 hours and 40 minutes’ worth using more than one medium at a time.
Older consumers spend most of their media and communications time using TV and radio sets, while younger people spend half of their time with computers, mobile phones and handheld devices.
18% of mobile phone users access the internet using their handsets, a five percentage point increase since Q2 2007.
Social networking now accounts for nearly a quarter - 23% - of all time spent online.
Digital television was the most widely-adopted digital communications technology in 2009.
The growth in online catch-up TV services continued in 2009, as consumers increasingly watched internet-based content via their PC.
On-demand content accounts for 17% of the average consumer’s 1,461 total minutes of weekly audio-visual viewing.
UK adults are most likely to watch scheduled TV on its own, whereas mobile and computer activities attract the most simultaneous media use.
Online advertising grew through the downturn to reach £3.5bn in 2009.

With a recent Microsoft Advertising/Nielsen report into the effectiveness of video advertising showing that the medium outperforms TV advertising “thanks to an inherently more engaged audience and high-quality advertising environments that include exclusive positions alongside content,” coupled with the Rise of Rich TV, and burgeoning innovations in the mobile advertising experience, creating campaigns from the bottom up that include seamless integration of media delivery, consumption and measurement will soon be part of every brand’s approach to delivering their message when, where and however they need to.

Check out what the Microsoft Advertising team in the UK have to offer marketers, including a huge compendium of case studies for you to digest along with OFCOM’s report.

Thanks,

Mel

Admira - Bringing the Emotion to Digital Affordably via TV

2010-08-18T10:14:00Z

Had a chance to sit down and review a new program we have around Video that got my old Brand Manager motor running.

For a while I’ve been bullish on our Admira TV product, but as we build up our inventory to get to amazing scale, I also kept thinking about how we can expand that reach via Internet Delivered video ads.

The pilot combines Microsoft’s owned inventory - MSN, MSNBC, Fox Sports, Windows Live, etc - with Admira (Television), and a new internet delivered video ad network - 3^rd party quality sites.

This is exciting because with a single creative element you can reach a broad audience that enables video advertisers to efficiently reach their audiences virtually everywhere and any time on any device.

My goal, as I’ve said for a long time, is to see a CMO show a video ad but pull back and show it on a PC, TV, Phone, etc.

We’re still in the pilot phase, but imagine adding our partner MSNBCs TV inventory - including the Today Show and other NBC news programs!

Truly amazing to think we can generate the same emotional connection, but now in a way that we can measure.

If I was only 20 years younger and back in my Brand Management days, the golf business would not know what hit it!

Thanks,

Mark - GM for Marketing at Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Advertising TV - Episode 1 - Multi-screen Digital Research, Spikes Asia, Cloud Computing

2010-08-16T10:02:50Z

In a new digital initiative to bring you all the very best news and views from Microsoft Advertising, we’re experimenting with a monthly update video – Microsoft Advertising TV

Every month we’ll bring you the best of the blogs and provide links to the most talked about content we’ve published.

We’ll also round off each short video with an interview with someone in the digital industry giving their insight into a hot topic of the moment.

In this month’s edition:

Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance Video
Microsoft Advertising Asia’s Digital Quotient Test – Win a trip to Spikes 2010
Lips for Xbox - Windows Live campaign case study
Our Multi-Screen Consumer Research with Wunderman
An interview with Steve Clayton, a Microsoft expert on Cloud Computing, who gives some great stats about how Microsoft is working with software and services and explains what our CEO Steve Ballmer means by "We're all in!" Check out Steve’s blog – Geek in Disguise

Let us know what you think of this format. You can find the same video on our Microsoft Advertising YouTube Channel too.

Thanks,

Mel

Cannes 2010: A Turning Point in the Great TV Debate

2010-08-13T13:42:39Z

I came to the 2010 Cannes Lions Advertising Festival to learn, share, and collaborate with my peers in the advertising industry (OK, and to catch some rays on the incomparable French Riviera).

I was also looking forward to a vigorous discussion on the topic of the future of television during a workshop I led called, “The Rise of Rich TV.” The workshop was filled to capacity – in fact, standing room only -- confirming that this is indeed a hot topic.

What surprised me, however, is how much the people in that room were in agreement about where TV is headed. There was a palatable shift from the uncertainty of last few years – a tension rooted in the enormous changes that have roiled the broadcast landscape – to a sense of inevitability about TV’s evolution (I’ve blogged about this evolution in previous posts).

At Cannes, we invited industry leaders to provide solid evidence on the key trends which are changing the way advertisers think about engaging their audience through the largest screen in the home.

This consensus was not the result of an overly polite crowd. The room was bursting with creative and strategic thinkers and leaders from across the globe, each of whom has strong opinions around TV advertising. Rather, the consensus was a strong signal that the advertising community has collectively crossed some kind of line, where we acknowledge that the TV of tomorrow simply will not look like the TV of today. And the attributes that define the new world of interactive TV are coming into sharper focus.

I had expected a spirited, even contentious discussion, similar to the rather heated debate between Mark Cuban, the Chairman of HDnet, and Boxee CEO Avner Ronen. This ongoing discussion centers around their differing points of view on how internet video can be monetized. Cuban is adamant that streaming content from the web to the TV screen is not the future of TV. While this debate is interesting, it is beside the point. The real question is: how can you get the best of the web and the best of TV to work together in ways that will engage consumers? How the consumer engages with the content is more relevant than how the content arrives on the screen.

I look at this issue from the advertiser’s perspective: certainly, they want the interactivity and measurability of the web, but this by itself is not enough. Even more important is the desire for an immersive, big screen HD experience that truly engages the audience. Xbox has been delivering on this “best of both worlds” vision for some time now, and we continue to explore new and innovative ways to engage audiences with brands. In the last year, dozens of marquee brands such as Nike, McDonalds, Porsche and American Express spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting their brands with breakthrough results – some of them coming back for their second or third Xbox campaign.

Industry stalwarts like Cuban, Ronen and others will no doubt continue to slug out the issue of how content should make its way onto that big screen, which keeps things interesting for the rest of us. But there is another, more pressing debate that lives at the intersection of the consumer’s interactive TV experience and advertiser ROI. That debate is about audience engagement and I’ll be tackling that head-on in my next blog post.

On Xbox, marketers are learning that consumer’s tend to react favorably to advertising that invites – not interrupts – the consumer into a conversation, and offers them something in exchange for their attention.

In the increasingly frenetic, multi-screen, A.D.D. digital world we have created for ourselves, the Cannes crowd agreed that audience engagement with content and brands is the issue facing advertisers today.

We also agreed to spend the next decade returning to Cannes’ inspired beachfront to talk endlessly about just how we address the issue.

Thanks,

Mark Kroese - General Manager, Advertising Business Group

Digital Advertising Case Studies in One Gorgeous Silverlight Compendium

2010-08-12T11:13:00Z

Someone great once said, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” This was obviously way before the internet was thought of and digital advertising became so important in many of our lives.

Case studies have become part an parcel of how we communicate the effectiveness of online marketing, helping us all evangelise the medium and pull other advertisers and marketers onto the accelerating internet advertising train.

Now, you obviously can’t eat a digital campaign, but comprehensive case studies do pass the taste test.

So much so, we at Microsoft Advertising have launched a compendium of digital advertising case studies which you’re free to devour at will.

Built in Silverlight, the global hub is an easy-to-navigate and interactive hive of digital insight from all over the world.

Select your vertical, country, Microsoft property or agency, and you can choose a case study from Pepsi, Sony, Sprint, Coca-Cola, Bing, Cadbury, P&G, Toyota, Kia, Nivea and many, many more.

The team has even made it possible to download or share them via social media and email.

Do take the time to explore the different digital stories and let us know what you think or what else you would like to see.

Cheers

@MelCarson

Video: How Does Social Media Fit in the Marketing Mix?

2010-08-10T15:21:36Z

Kate Box, Head of Social Media at Microsoft Advertising UK, talks to the IAB in London about what “social media” means, her role at Microsoft, why advertisers should be engaging in social media marketing, and what future trends to expect.

Includes some great insight into consumer habits and where ad products are going when it comes to creating engaging experiences online.

Don’t forget to download our Social Media White Paper and the study we did with the IAB on Search & Social Media

Cheers,

Mel

Microsoft Advertising - 2010 Europe Creative Showcase Video

2010-08-09T18:34:08Z

Following on from last week’s global advertising video, today we laser in on what advertisers’ dreams we’ve delivered in EMEA.

Check out our Bing Video Channel for more visual insight. We’re also on YouTube too.

Cheers

Mel

Microsoft Advertising’s 2010 Global Creative Showcase Video

2010-08-06T18:59:40Z

Two & a half minutes of video showing some of the very best advertising we've delivered for brands around the world.

Includes MSN homepage take-overs, rich media, in-game advertising on Xbox Live, multinational solutions, mobile and multi-screen executions, lots of stats, lots of animation, lots of dreams delivered.

Check out our Digital Creative Showcase to see these campaigns in action.

For more on our solutions visit Microsoft Advertising.

Cheers

Mel

Microsoft’s Rick Song Wins The Advertising Club President Award

2010-08-04T18:04:00Z

It’s great to be recognised for doing a great job, but it’s nicer to be recognised for going above and beyond the call of duty.

So it’s with enormous pride that we let you know Rick Song, our senior sales director based in New York, has been recognised by The Advertising Club for his recent charity fundraising work.

From the AD Club team:

“The President Award recognizes the outstanding contributions made by AD Club members throughout the course of the year. Rick Song was chosen to receive this honor because of his contributions to The Club’s leading fundraiser MEDIACTION.

To date, Microsoft is the leading donor of digital media to our program. We are fortunate to have Rick’s participation on our committee as he is not only generous with inventory, but also with his forward thinking ideas and industry connections which help us to grow this initiative in the future.”

Congratulations Rick!

Cheers

Mel