Microsoft Corp. is inventing a new malady for which its new Web search site, Bing, is the only cure.
That’s the premise of the $100 million, four-month advertising campaign Microsoft hopes will turn Bing into a verb and give the software maker a fighting chance against search leader Google Inc. — unlike its last redesign, Live Search, which launched four years ago to such little fanfare that many Web surfers still don’t know where to find it online.
In the first Bing ad, which debuted Wednesday night, Microsoft unveils “search overload” syndrome — the state of confusion brought on by search results that don’t answer a user’s question. The commercial starts with bleeps and blips and a montage of Web-video frivolity (think cat playing piano).
“While everyone was searching, there was bailing,” a narrator says over news footage from the economic meltdown. “While everyone was lost in the links, there was collapsing.”
The chaotic footage and soundtrack give way to upbeat rock music and stock-footage-style shots of children happily using consumer electronics and adults making calculations, rehabilitating injuries and going places.
“It’s time to Bing,” the narrator concludes. When he says the word “Bing,” his voice goes much, much higher.
The current events scenes are intended to tie the idea of saving money during the recession to using the new search engine to find travel and shopping deals, said Ty Montague, chief creative officer at JWT, the agency responsible for the TV ads.
“The world of excess is over,” he said. “What people need is something that is more meaningful, gets to the point more quickly, gets them to what they want.”
Next week, Microsoft will switch to a humorous approach, launching four more ads showing people answering everyday questions with monotone streams of semi-related words — “search overload” personified, the company says.
The ads, which call Bing a decision engine instead of a search engine, don’t show off any of its new features. Microsoft is saving those details for an online campaign, which will include a two-hour stretch in which every ad on The New York Times’ Web site is for Bing. On a Facebook page devoted to Bing, Microsoft already has more than 20,000 “fans,” though the company did not say how many of them work for the company. Its Twitter followers top 16,000. And Microsoft is planning to promote Bing on the TV Web site Hulu.com, but executives wouldn’t say when.
Microsoft is also paying to have Bing mentioned on Bravo’s “The Rachel Zoe Project,” a reality show about the celebrity stylist, and a new NBC series called “The Philanthropist,” which will start in the fall.
To be sure, it’s not clear any amount of advertising can help Microsoft win a bigger slice of searches and their related advertising revenue, which could help pull its unprofitable online division into the black. IAC/InterActiveCorp. and Yahoo Inc. have both tried TV campaigns, but Google, which shuns most formal advertising, has been the only search engine to continually increase its market share in the U.S.
Microsoft’s U.S. market share is about 8 percent, according to comScore Inc. Yahoo Inc.’s share of the U.S. market has fallen from more than 30 percent five years ago to about 20 percent in April, comScore said last month. Google now holds about 64 percent of the U.S. market.
Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president in Microsoft’s online group, said the company is targeting an increase in market share within a year.
“Anyone who thinks there will be a magical change of market share overnight is not being realistic about what it takes,” Mehdi said.
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More