It's that “squeaky-bum time” again as Sir Alex Ferguson would say, where the nation holds its breath in hope for England's long awaited World Cup glory.

England's World Cup participation is expected to provide a major revenue boost to the economy, some predicting it to be worth between £1.5billion - £2billion (The Times).

So how have Bing and MSN prepared for the event and where we will see increased search activity prior to and during the event?

Bing - Visual Search

Bing recently launched some new additions to our ever-growing, fantastic Visual Search offering. Want to keep track of what countries are battling for glory? Why not try Bing Visual Search here. More features around the event are releasing in the days to come so watch out for a follow up article to highlight some of the fantastic features launching in Bing.

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MSN – Complete Coverage

MSN has the complete daily run-down for the event with the latest news, injuries, goals and nail-biting moments. You can can follow all the action within the MSN World Cup section. MSN even had the opportunity to interview Wayne Rooney and recently crocked England skipper Rio Ferdinand.

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Online Sports Betting (for UK Advertisers Only) 

This summer’s event will see between £500m (Latitude Digital Marketing) and £750m (thisismoney.co.uk) gambled online over the one month event with a predicted 700% increase in online search query volumes compared to 4 years ago.

Year-on-year search volumes for sports betting terms on Bing have increased by more than 67%! Consumers are keen to focus not only on core 'betting' and 'sports betting' terms, but focusing on specific events, teams, players odds. Using Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, you can ensure you have strong keyword depth using the keyword generation features but also ensure that strong negatives are covered.

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Retail

The planned promotion of World Cup merchandise, offers and sales began many, many months ago, ready for kick-off to arrive. The UK may be slowing in recovering from the economic crisis, but the Retail sector should receive a significant boost from the World Cup, especially if England makes it through to the later stages of the tournament. According to the Times, when England made it to the later stages of the World Cup' 06 retail spending increased by a further £1.25billion!

Offers galore, ranging from supermarket promotions to consumer electronics - the nation is seeing a large number of great summer promotions. One particular trend that continues to grow is the sale of new TVs. LCD TVs, plasma TVs and the exciting new addition of 3D TVs has captivated households, with many looking for the latest and greatest TVs to watch all the action in their living rooms. According to thisismoney.co.uk, they have predicted Britain to spend almost £4billion on creating luxury World Cup dens in people's homes, with TVs and surround-sound being of particular interest. Search activity on Bing has continued to see the increased popularity of TVs and consumer electronics with new promotions being heavily advertised both online and offline.

Travel & Finance

Unsurprisingly, the travel market has benefited in the UK from the event being hosted in South Africa. Travel products ranging from flights to hotels and travel insurance have been in high demand. Consumers have been searching for flights to the event but also ensuring they are fully covered for any potential risks they may face, i.e. travel insurance to cover any lost or stolen items.

How can we help?

If you haven't already done so, then we encourage you to consider just a few tips to ensure your campaigns are ready and optimised before the event:

1. Keyword generation - using Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, you can quickly expand keyword lists for potential terms you may not be actively bidding on yet.

2. Negative keywords - ensure you have a strong list of negative keywords for any products or services you do not offer but perhaps may appear for against your keyword list. Not sure how to easily get these? Microsoft Advertising Intelligence can help you here too.

3. Ad Copy - prepare your ad copy with any USPs, offers, promotions, sales and calls-to action. Ensure your ads are relevant to your audience. Dynamic text insertion is a great opportunity to utilise here.

4. Campaign Budgets - do your budget settings currently limit the potential traffic to your site? Ensure you maximise visibility where possible by considering increased campaign budgets or increased daily limit caps.

5. Tools - we have a fantastic set of tools that will help you manage and plan your campaigns.

a. Utilise the Microsoft adCenter Desktop to quickly manage your account,

b. Install Microsoft Advertising Intelligence to find traffic trends, demographic insights and keyword monetization data - all easily done through Microsoft Excel

Let's hope England brings back the trophy and you all enjoy a successful campaign over the event too!

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