Microsoft’s Bing may become a more appealing investment to the UK’s search engine marketing industry if its latest advertising campaign is successful.
Although currently Microsoft has a diminutive 3% of the UK market, the software giant is to launch a major marketing push to challenge Google’s dominance of the UK search market (90%). Beginning next week a multi-million pound TV ad campaign will be broadcast across the country.
The campaign aims to highlight the benefits of Bing’s search results over those in Google, specifically its “visually rich” and intuitive results in comparison with the more austere Google. The Guardian reports that the adverts will contrast the “information overload” of search results delivered by rivals with Bing by featuring ordinary people asking for information and receiving non-sensical, convoluted answers.
Ashley Highfield, managing director and vice-president of consumer and online at Microsoft UK, openly stated the combative tone of the campaign.
“This is a big moment – we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath” he said. “People feel overawed by the internet and what they turn up when they are searching. We are also in a world where people have forgotten there is an alternative search engine”
TV ads will run solidly over the next month then be staggered to two-week bursts until mid-June. Activity across the many digital platforms operated by Microsoft and on partner social networking sites will support the campaign, hoping to win what Highfield describes as “a battle not just of mind but of heart as well”.
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