Search Engine Optimization News Blog

“The first thing we’re trying to do with this campaign is to capitalize with the latent dissatisfaction that’s going on with the market,” said Danielle Tiedt, general manager, Online Audience Business Group Marketing at Microsoft, commenting that people suffer from “search overload syndrome” when a search returns too many results.

Banner Web ads will likely run on sites such as the New York Times, Huffington Post, and “any place where the audience is really engaged… We’re [using] real world examples about the questions people would ask,” said Tiedt. “The other marketing challenge we have is being part of the conversation around search.” Tiedt continued, saying that Microsoft is trying to get people out of the habit of just going to Google. “The way we’re trying to do that is to integrate beyond just traditional ads. We made a big bet in social media… We’re trying to go beyond just serving ads, and get the voice working for Bing. We’re trying a lot of in-show integration”

The very first broadcast of the new Microsoft television advertising campaign promoting Bing can be viewed on their YouTube channel – it shows a couple discussing future vacation plans. When the wife asks if her husband found tickets to Hawaii, he starts rattling off multiple results he found when searching online – which doesn’t help them at all with their vacation plans. The ad calls this “Search Overload Syndrome”, or SOS, and says that Bing is the cure.