Microsoft Advertising Blog

It's the Audience, Stupid. Why Advertisers just want to Target and Go

JJ Richards MSFT — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:05:00 GMT

In this post I'm going to explore in more detail a theme I've touched on a couple of times before in Facts Are Stubborn Things and Games Advertising Takes Center Stage. And at the risk of sounding insulting - my apologies in advance! - I'm also going to continue paraphrasing past Presidents by saying games advertising is no different to any other form of digital advertising inasmuch as it's primarily about the audience, stupid. Advertisers just want to target and go.

Let me clarify what I mean by that and why it's important for both advertisers and for Microsoft Advertising.

One of the most common questions asked of me and many others in the industry is: How big can games advertising really get when it's simply not appropriate to include ads in some of the most popular franchises, such as Halo and World Of Warcraft?

It's a fair question because millions of people have spent billions of hours playing those games. But it's taking too narrow a view not only of games advertising in particular, but of digital advertising in general.

Think of movies. In films like Avatar you will never see billboard ads in the jungles of Pandora, but the 1.3 billion movie goers annually in North America are a valuable audience for advertisers. While in-movie ads doesn't work for every movie, advertisers do run spots and trailers before the main feature to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year in the US. And there are also myriad other ways marketers align themselves with movies without intruding on the story or interrupting it for commercial breaks.

Massive is enabling publishers to add inventory so that advertisers can reach the large audiences of games that preclude advertising. This happens in "around-game" environments like Xbox LIVE lobbies and on leaderboards, plus traditional Web sites, just as advertisers reach movie goers in the environment of the cinema but not during the film.

This of course is in addition to dynamic in-game advertising and fixed product placement in titles in which ads are absolutely appropriate and add realism, such as sports games or those set in contemporary urban environments. (Here's an example of the power of combining our in- and around-game offerings across the Xbox LIVE and Massive platforms.)

But back to the original point about audiences . Advertising and media spend follow the eyeballs and many indicators - such as this, this and most recently this - point to the growth of games as an advertising medium. (Even as sales dropped off last year, time spent gaming increased.)

Increasingly, the eyeballs of the elusive male 18-34 audience can be found among our unparalleled reach of 50 million gamers in 31 countries, whether in-game or around-game, across the Massive and Xbox LIVE networks.

And network is the operative word. We're very proud of the publishers we partner with and I blogged about Massive's "blockbuster line up" of Fall/Winter titles to highlight the breadth and depth of our network. It is this breadth of offerings and the reach of our network that means advertisers - whether they are QSRs or auto makers or entertainment brands - can find their audience and engage with it in new ways. The vast majority of our advertisers understand it's unlikely they will find their complete audience among the players of a single game, or for that matter successfully run an entire campaign in a single title, no matter how big. Consequently, only a small, single digit percentage of them buy media in specific titles.

This network effect is present in all forms of digital media, allowing ever more targeted, efficient and cost effective advertising. We've seen this in the long tail of the Web and through the rise of online ad networks. We're beginning to see this in TV too, and I'd encourage you to take a look at what my colleagues at Microsoft Advertising's TV Media Group are doing to allow advertisers to buy audiences across the breadth of NBC Universal's network, delivering increased relevance, performance and efficiency for advertisers while simultaneously unlocking value in NBC Universal's inventory.

For the same reasons advertisers are unlikely to find their audience or achieve their objectives for a campaign in a single video game, or in one TV show, today they're also unlikely to want to engage with that audience through a single media channel or delivery mechanism. That's why Microsoft Advertising offers the ability to run multi-screen campaigns across the Web, mobile, and TV. Our role is to make buying ads in games - the jewel in this crown because of the unparalleled combination of Massive and Xbox LIVE - as easy as buying ads in any other digital medium.

The Microsoft Advertising platform allows advertisers to target and go, across content, devices and time. Check boxes and click to buy - it can be as simple as that. And what they're buying is the audience, stupid.

Thanks,

If you'd like more information about advertising opportunities available across the Massive network, please contact your Massive sales representative or email us at massinfo@microsoft.com.

Cannes Lions Creative Contest Leads to World Premiere!

Ginny Musante - MSFT — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:45:00 GMT

What began as a contest for young creatives at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival has resulted in a world premiere video on World Cancer Day!

Last June, we gathered some of the best young creative minds in the industry at our Games Advertising Workshop at Cannes. During the session we challenged 3 teams to come up with their best idea for a pro bono campaign for for Stand Up to Cancer. The winning concept featured a celebrity gamer doing a music video that debuted on Xbox LIVE and challenged gamers across the globe to Stand Up to Cancer. Today, World Cancer Day, that video premiered.

The Up2 You + Me music video features Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. In the video which was created by Jesse and Zach Selwyn, Jim plays 13 different characters.

The point being, it's up to all of us to stand up to cancer. The campaign encourages users to support SU2C by texting, calling and visiting the organization's website to donate. Through the Massive Network these messages are targeted to gamers in-game across many Xbox game titles.

In addition, Xbox LIVE members are able to download the SU2C theme and gamer pics to show their support for the cause through the Xbox LIVE community. The Up2 You + Me Video will air throughout various popular Xbox LIVE games where users are able to donate via text.

Just as the fight against cancer requires teams of people working together, this campaign was very much a group effort. We teamed with DDB Los Angeles every step of the way. Executive Creative Director Matt Reinhard, who was on the ground in Cannes to judge the submissions, Jefferson Burruss, who in this capacity as director of digital and online and Janet Wang, Account Executive, helped see the campaign through from concept to execution.

The DDB team worked closely with our account teams across Microsoft Advertising to get the Stand Up To Cancer campaign delivered to the Xbox LIVE and Massive communities in a compelling way. And to all the creatives who took part in our Cannes workshop, thanks for joining in to learn more about games and entertainment advertising at Microsoft. I hope to see most of you again at Cannes 2010!

Mobile Display Ads - Announcing Full HTML Device Targeting

Raj Kapoor - MSFT — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:30:00 GMT

Today we have launched full HTML device targeting, which allows advertisers to easily target mobile display ads to the group of all handsets that have the capability to render full HTML sites including those sites developed for the PC web. These phones include iPhone, Android, and full HTML browser Windows phones and Blackberry devices.

Targeting full HTML mobile devices is appealing to advertisers for many reasons. Some advertisers wish to reach this audience segment simply due to their increased consumption of mobile media products. Other advertisers wish to use full HTML targeting to target Rich Media ad campaigns to devices that support these advanced mobile ad units, or simply to drive consumers to a more engaging full HTML page designed for mobile screens.

Still other advertisers wish to enter the mobile advertising space but have not yet optimized their website to render on feature phones or other less featured mobile browsers. While these advertisers recognize that the ideal consumer experience is to create a dedicated mobile web site for all mobile users, including those with devices capable of displaying sites originally created for the PC web, full HTML device targeting allows them to easily extend their online campaigns into mobile and reach this engaged mobile audience by driving these sophisticated users to their online destinations.

Previously, accomplishing this level of targeting required advertisers to keeping an up-to-date list of all the hundreds of mobile devices with full HTML mobile browsers, and then individually target each one of them to a campaign's targeting profile. This feature frees advertisers from the hassle of remembering which handsets are capable of rendering full HTML, and advertisers can now spend less time worrying if they missed any full HTML mobile device and more time optimizing their campaigns.

For more information on these and other Microsoft mobile advertising solutions check out our Mobile Advertising site or send through an email to MoAd U.S. Sales.

Thanks,

Raj Kapoor, Microsoft Mobile Advertising team

ESPN promote Premiership Football on Pro Evo Soccer 10

Mel Carson - MSFT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:03:00 GMT

Following on from our announcement of the 1st ever Silverlight ad on MSN UK last week, I wanted to showcase another innovative use of technology to reach audiences while they play games online.

Targeting 15-34 year old male demographic, the advertising agency Carat recently worked with Microsoft Advertising to display ads inside the Pro Evo Soccer 10 game to inform gamers when ESPN would be screening their live coverage.

Advertising in games is a growing industry as JJ Richards, the GM for Massive, wrote last October.

If you want to learn more, check out all our posts about games advertising and find more information on how to reach millions of gamers on our advertising site.

Cheers

Mel

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1st Ever Silverlight Ad on MSN for EA Games Mass Effect 2

Mel Carson - MSFT — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:45:00 GMT

Today, at 3pm GMT, the MSN UK Gaming Channel saw a bit of advertising history - the first interactive rich media ad built completely on our Silverlight platform.

In true “One Microsoft” style, Microsoft Advertising in the UK has worked with the Silverlight team and specialist agency Metia, to bring a truly unique campaign for EA Games to the online masses.

The launch of Mass Effect 2 was thought to be the perfect opportunity for such a hi-spec, hi-def execution which uses Silverlight’s Smooth Streaming and Deep Zoom technology to let users interact, drill down and zoom into the content and watch HD video seamlessly.

As advertising gets more sophisticated, the demands of brands and agencies continue to push the boundaries of digital, insisting that technology keeps pace with the ever-growing desire of consumers to interact and be involved.

Last month, I blogged about our campaign for the 3D movie Avatar on MSN, and the need for marketers to think multi-screen in their approach to digital.

We believe this EA campaign demonstrates just how technology can be used to, not only resonate across devices, but make those experiences, deeper, richer and more immersive.

The campaign will run on the MSN UK homepage on Saturday as well, so check it and let us know your thoughts.

View the ad here!

Cheers

Mel

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Microsoft and Mediabrands Research Webinar: 5 Things Every Marketer Should Measure

Ginny Musante - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:22:00 GMT

Today we conducted a webinar, 5 Things Every Marketer Should Measure, focusing on a pilot study we conducted last year comparing the impact and effectiveness on Xbox LIVE to the impact and effectiveness of traditional video and television ads.

The results showed there was more time spent, better ad recall, and higher levels of emotional and cognitive response in association with the Xbox LIVE campaigns than with traditional TV executions. But more important than the result is the methodology.

By combining survey data and behavioral data with biosensory measures, we believe we've found a compelling way to measure advertising impact and compare engagement cross media. It's important work that could help all marketers make the most of their media mix.

The subject attracted considerable media attention when we first released the results last month.

If you'd like to know more, you can download a whitepaper on the subject, Cracking the Code on Cross Media Engagement, or you can register to watch today's webinar 5 Things Every Marketer Should Measure on demand.

As I told webinar attendees this morning, this subject matter is near and dear to my heart and is quite possibly among the most important work I have done as a marketer; it has tremendous potential to truly change the game!

New Creative Kid On The Blo(g)ck

Jeremy Grubaugh - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:57:00 GMT

So this is what writing a blog feels like :-)

The Who (as in "who the heck are you?")

My name is Jeremy Grubaugh. I'm currently the Creative Director for Microsoft's Branded Entertainment and Experience Team and primarily responsible for the creative output of original content & experiences brought on behalf of brands for the Microsoft audience.

I help facilitate the ideation and creation of industry leading branded experiences that are consumed by millions via the Microsoft network and platforms. Working closely with Brands and Agencies, we look to to engage audiences in a more relevant way by delivering quality content on their behalf.

For the last 6 years I've been helping to grow a team of talented individuals consisting of designers, UX researchers, and technologists in efforts to help navigate the ever changing landscape of digital advertising.

In addition, we partner closely with internal Microsoft product teams to better understand new ways to marry technology, brand & audience.

The What (as in "what are you doing here?")

I'll be looking to help spread some creative love.

One aspect of my role is to scour the "inter-webs" looking for creative experiences that excite both consumers and advertisers alike. I primarily look for what inspires.

Posts will showcase a range from the extremely smart, to the extremely cool - hopefully all will engage and encourage you take a few minutes away from your busy schedule to explore, inspire and learn.

First Up

Myspace music has stepped-up with a very creative use of Facebook connect.

Fanvideo invites user to "join the video" simply by connecting to Facebook, then creating a mash-up of their favorite artists. I would say more but it's best to see it for yourself. My favorite. 50cent.

Check back soon. More on the way.

Thanks

Jeremy

2 Questions for Our Customers

Mark Young - MSFT — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:49:00 GMT

It’s 2010 and I’m right so far on being glad it’s here!

I’m writing this as our Consumer and Online Mid-Year Review with Microsoft COO Kevin Turner and all the Business Group Leaders at Microsoft is coming to an end.

C&O is the larger organization within Microsoft that houses Microsoft Advertising. It includes all the products and services that touch consumers like Windows, Windows Phone, MSN, Windows Live and Bing.

Microsoft Advertising is the part of the business that helps marketers tap into those audiences by providing solutions for display, mobile, search and games advertising.

As a business, we’ve had a good last 6 months and what’s nice to see is that things look good for the next 6 months and beyond in the US and globally too!

But there’s no question from the review that, more than ever before, the voice of “you” - our customer - is being heard and acted upon, but we've had strong feedback that we need to talk to our customers even more, listen even more and act even faster.

So let me put it out there in two ways and ask for your help:

Search: What’s the one thing we can do to help you with Search?

Display: What’s the one thing we can do to help you through Display?

Let us know below what you need from us to help you conduct your business more efficiently and fruitfully.

I'm all ears!

Thanks for your time in advance!

Mark

Microsoft Advertising Europe – Our Site and How to Advertise

Mel Carson - MSFT — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:00:00 GMT

Just before the holidays we announced we’d re-designed our advertising sites, adding a few more bells and whistles to make it easier and more intuitive for you to find information about all our advertising products and services.

Today, I’ll give you a whirlwind tour of our site Advertising Site in Europe.

Locally tailored to the region, it’s very much an information hub that houses all our insight on online marketing opportunities on the continent.

Here are a few of the areas you can explore for some digital delectables:

- Details on Display Advertising, including Hotmail, Messenger, MSN, Rich Media & Video and those all important Display Specs & Formats

- Information on where you can buy Search Advertising through us in Europe on Microsoft adCenter & Bing

- Our knowledge base on Understanding Digital, where you can download our Guide to Online Advertising

- An area for Creative Inspiration

- Discover all the Online Advertising Research we’ve carried out recently

- A simple way to Contact Microsoft Advertising Sales

We operate in quite a few markets in Europe, so if you’re interested in specific ones or want information in the local language, it’s really easy to drill down into the different country websites.

Go to the top right corner above the Bing Box and hover over Europe.

From here you can laser in on the individual country sites or explore further afield.

If you have any questions about the site or about advertising in Europe, just drop in a comment below and we’ll point you in the right direction.

Cheers

Mel

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Microsoft Media Network - Fastest Growing Ad Network in the US

Mel Carson - MSFT — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:55:00 GMT

comScore announced last night that our ad network was the fastest growing year-on-year from December 08 to December 09.

The press release shows our unique users grew in the US a whopping 31% to 165M at the end of last year from 126M the year before.

comScore senior vice president Jeff Hackett said, “Ad networks continue to be a powerful mechanism for delivering a large audience online, with eight different networks reaching at least 75 percent of the entire U.S. online population. Increasingly, however, ad networks are improving their capability for reaching more targeted audiences as well, which delivers enhanced value to advertisers and helps sustain higher CPMs for the channel. 2010 should bring us continued innovation and performance from this growing online sector.”

Our network provides a number of online targeting options that really help marketers laser in on their desired audience, eliminating wasted impressions and improving ROI.

Only last week we blogged about the HyperTargeting sessions at CES in Las Vegas and the power of using this kind of technology to get your message to the right audience across multiple screens.

Next week, we’ll grab an interview with the team to discover what they put the impressive growth down to and bring your some details on the options available and why they work.

Check out more on our advertising site – Microsoft Media Network.

Cheers

Mel

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TV & Entertainment Advertising at CES 2010 Digital Hollywood

Mel Carson - MSFT — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:13:00 GMT

Back now to a freezing cold London, I’ve been reflecting on sunny Vegas & what I learned at the Digital Hollywood sessions at CES.

The last two tracks I attended on Friday were The NexGen Entertainment Home Experience and Hollywood and Media Reinvented where we were represented by Sean Alexander, a director in our Advertising Business Group, and Erin Foxworthy our Entertainment Category Director.

Both hours discussed the value of great content being at the heart of any successful TV business model. Sean said that with products like Xbox Live, where there are 30M units out there and 20M of those connected to the internet, there is a clear value exchange. That kind of audience is attractive to brand advertisers as consumers are connected and engaged to a great experience.

Buddy Snow from Motorola articulated they see the drivers of success as being content, community and control.

Viewers are wanting to control their experience like never before and have a say in the content lifecycle. From their own research they’ve seen that this kind of desire to dictate pervades strongly across all demographics. They see service providers as crucial in managing content well and creating differentiating experiences for users.

The word “choice” was used over and over again. Providing viewers with choice in this evolving landscape is important as they want more of a retail experience. They know what they want, and they want it when they want it. They don’t want to be beholden to one service if it can’t deliver on demand.

When Sean’s panel were asked for their single most important market factor for 2010 this is what they came up with:

- Home network

- Remote user interfaces

- Very sophisticated content management systems

- Business models around broadcast that work

- Connection through power sources

- Customised entertainment personalisation for consumers

- Rise of natural user interface – Project Natal

Future trends were on the menu in Erin’s session too, with panellists forecasting a plethora of connected devices giving consumers multiple ways to consume media, a lot more opportunities to utilise internet video, creating content for branded entertainment, personalization and openness and traditional companies and internet businesses engaging on and offline with their customers.

Richard Sussman, Director, Media & Entertainment at Nielsen Online, explained it was crucial for brands to understand where the consumer is. They need analyse the data & connect the dots. Understanding the consumer more effectively across all paradigms is becoming more and more important for success – Engagement Mapping immediately sprang to mind as he was saying this.

Summing up the whole week I’ll refer to a post I wrote for Media Week:

“Given the amount of gadgetry on show here, it doesn't take a genius to work out how important integrated marketing is going to be. Not just online/offline, but between devices.

The big message was around joined up efforts to not only push messages out in a unified way, but the need to track it back and understand where each channel fits in the mix.”

Find more of our CES coverage & photos on our Facebook Page.

Cheers

Mel

Getting Connected at CES 2010 & Digital Hollywood – Day 2

Mel Carson - MSFT — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:54:00 GMT

Well if the scrum to get through the doors this morning here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was anything to go by, what was on offer from the 2.5K exhibitors better have been good………......and it was!

This is my first CES and I’ve never seen such an glittering array of gadgetry and grown men & women salivating at the thought of one day owning one of the latest bits of equipment on show.

The Microsoft “booth” went on for miles!

Xbox, Mediaroom, Windows 7, Office 2010, Bing, Zune, Surface and Windows Phone all featured with some areas 3-deep in delegates clamouring to “have a go”!

Some may wonder what the hardware has to do with advertising - this is an advertising blog after all. But it’s exactly these devices that are being used now, and even more in the future, to carry a brand’s message. We’ve talked much about how important a seamless integration of digital into the marketing mix is. The notion of “3 Screen Advertising” just leaps out when you see TVs, PCs and mobile phones so close together being handled by people from all walks of life.

From a consumer point of view it’s about connected entertainment, from an advertising point of view it’s about integrated marketing.

Upstairs in the North Halls, Digital Hollywood, the advertising conference affiliated to CES was getting its 2nd day underway and I managed to tear myself away from the arcade games to go and sit in and Twitter from a couple of sessions.

Both yielded quite similar messages.

Unlike yesterday, mobile was mentioned for the 1st time in the Reinventing Advertising track at the end of that age old sentence, “Is this the year of….…?”

Our GM from Microsoft Advertising, Randy Wootton, said it would be a better year than 2009 and receive more attention and energy as like Social Media it was still very much in the experimental bucket. But that like no other year, 2010 would be when we see it really taking off.

Rhys McLachlan, Head of Broadcast Implementation at MediaCom thought we were a couple of years off mainstream use of the channel, as consumers are taking time to take up the technology, so there will be a lag for marketers and the platforms to catch up.

Just as the mobile conversation started to get going, the panel veered off in the direction of Social Media, saying it was the hotter topic right now.

Mark J. Penn, President of Penn, Schoen and Berland, quoted that 74% of marketers are using some form of Social Media to communicate. He also stated that 92% of 18-24 year olds are social networking, and that 31% of those have made purchases because of recommendations from people in their virtual social circle. Amazingly 68% believe it’s as good or better as regular media.

Although there’s no one metric for measuring the impact of Social Media, there is no doubt that its proliferation is spilling across multiple screens. If you think about how many people are now connected via their mobile phone, be aware that through services like Xbox Live, millions of consumers are sharing and communicating via TV too.

The silver bullet of just how to get the right message to the more-likely buyer was raised again in the “HyperTargeting” session where we were represented by James Colborn who heads up the Audience team at Microsoft Advertising.

He said that two trends he was seeing was the increasingly sophisticated and granular targeting advertisers were seeking, and that many customers were now willing to share their data, not expecting the publisher to necessarily have all the answers.

Jen Soch, from the Mediavest TV Team, said the problem with “Hypertargeting” comes when you are dealing with very generic brands. What about packaged goods? What makes one mum less likely to buy a packet of cereal than another?

One thing she also said helps me round off this post nicely. All departments in her agency talk to each other when a new brand comes on board. So the TV guys, chat with the press, outdoor and digital teams to make sure they're on the same page, and the messaging they go ahead with resonates throughout the whole campaign.

The take away I’m getting from this event is that the opportunity of all these devices being connected is wasted if the strategies employed to leverage their audiences are not synchronised as well.

It’s not a totally new notion, but having all the technology here as we talk about digital is really hammering it home for everyone!

Find more of our CES coverage in the blogs and on our Facebook Page and Twitter account.

Cheers

Mel

Game Power - New Year's Predictions from Digital Hollywood at CES 2010

Ginny Musante - MSFT — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:42:00 GMT

As the world's largest trade show gets underway, marketers, publishers, and game developers gathered to share their insights and predictions for the future. Today's Game Power panel was one of the first sessions in a series of workshops at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

As a marketer for Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Advertising Business Group, the team that creates advertising opportunities in Xbox LIVE, MSN Games, and Windows LIVE Messenger Games, I found the session quite gratifying. Many panel members shared a message we've been touting for years - that gaming is no longer emerging and should be considered main stream media.

The other message they shared was that everybody games. According to Interpret there are 120 million gamers in the U.S., one in three are parents. According to Nielsen (see attachment below), over half, 54%, of US households have a gaming device and when it comes to consoles, the one used most often is the Xbox 360. Nielsen is a CES sponsor and will be sharing some of this data at the conference.

All of this of course is good news to marketers who are looking to connect with consumers at their passion points.

So what's ahead? What's coming? According to the panel:

"Social games present a huge and growing opportunity"
"The audience is broadening and will continue to broaden"
"Digital experiences will become more game-like"
"Gaming will be less bound by hardware"
"The natural user interface (controller-free gaming) will be game changing."

At Microsoft, we talk a lot about connected entertainment and experiences that travel with the consumer from the PC to the TV to the mobile device. Now that gaming has emerged as mainstream entertainment, I can't wait to see what's next. Any ideas?

Find more of our CES coverage in the blogs and on our Facebook Page and Twitter account.

Steve Ballmer at CES 2010 plus Digital Hollywood

Mel Carson - MSFT — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:50:00 GMT

So Day 1 is over here at CES in Las Vegas.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, has just stepped off stage after his keynote in which he talked about the successes of 2009 – the Windows 7 launch, Zune HD and the unleashing of our new decision engine – Bing - onto the world.

There were some great demos of new PCs, including the HP Slate which will be available later this year, plus some fabulous updates for Xbox, Mediaroom and news of the HTC HD2 Windows Phone which Darren Huston, the Head of our Consumer & Online Services Division was showing me as I sat next to him Tweeting live from the event!

You can see the video of Steve’s keynote at our new Microsoft News Center, where you’ll find all sorts of resources, facts and figures to support the event.

Earlier on in the day, I’d been sitting in on a few of the Digital Hollywood advertising conference sessions.

We have a number of speakers from Microsoft Advertising here at the event and it’s always interesting to hear what they have to say in discussion with other publishers and advertising technology providers.

Social Media played a huge role in many of the discussions around targeting, analytics and consumer understanding. It seems that where there is a nut left to crack, marketers hover around it wanting to be the ones to make sense of it all. There’s nothing wrong with that either. It’s human nature to always want to be pushing the boundaries of understanding.

Because I was Tweeting live, I managed to jot down some great sound bites from the sessions:

Relevant & trustworthy advertising is what consumers want.
Agencies are very sophisticated when it comes to targeting. They either know their exact audience, or they’re willing to let the technology do its work.
Many publishers purchase data with which to target consumers, the best ones package and perform better.
Brand inventory is our anchor!
Social media represents a seismic shift in customer communications.
Gaming is inherently social. Social Media has changed the way multiple players interact.
Gamers want real-time, real and relevant ads in their games, not fake brands.
You have to segment when analysing or executing Social Media – what resonates with a 45 year old is very different from what might spark the imagination of someone in their teens.

I think probably the most impressive speakers of the morning was Carolyn Everson from MTV, who really hit the nail on the head when she talked of how the show with the Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident was re-worked based on the real-time feedback they were getting from Twitter. She talked of how not listening to customers in this social age could damage your brand.

She also said that more and more brands were coming to them asking for more experience-driven solutions, integrating more into their network across multiple screens. As they do so they are pushing the industry to organise differently and create platforms and resources to achieve some fantastic ideas.

More from us tomorrow but check out our Facebook Page and Twitter account for more updates and photos!

Cheers Mel

Read our Top 7 Blog Posts of 2009 Again!

Mel Carson - MSFT — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:48:00 GMT

Happy New Year everyone!

While we’re gearing up to bring you even more useful content from different corners of Microsoft Advertising in 2010, we thought it’d be interesting to showcase the Top 7 blog posts of 2009 for your delectation!

Microsoft LookingGlass Helps Businesses Catch the Social Media Wave at Advertising Week 2009

adCenter Analytics Beta To Close

The State of Contextual Advertising

Getting Back to Basics – Why Web Advertising Needs Traditional Media Metrics

Sitting down with the eTrade baby-daddy: Nick Utton on digital marketing

In-Game Advertising "Facts are Stubborn Things..."

Bing and adCenter Advertisers – Q & A

Analysing the traffic, we've seen a broad interest in all the advertising audiences our products and services span, from search to mobile, research to games advertising and social media.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook so you don’t miss any of our news and insight in the coming months.

Here’s to a fabulous and prosperous 2010!

Cheers

Mel

P.S. No prizes for guessing why we chose 7!