Microsoft plans to spend $80 million to $100 million to tout its new search engine, an enormous marketing push that's about four times the amount that Google spent on advertising last year, according to Advertising Age. The campaign, created by JWT, will consist of online, TV, radio and print. And Ad Age reports that the advertising won't go after Google or Yahoo directly, but will discuss how the Internet search experience could be improved.
Interestingly, Ad Age consistently refers to Microsoft's new search engine as Bing, one of the names that the software giant is considering. Currently code-named Kumo, Microsoft is expected to release the product this week at the D: All Things Digital conference.
Ad Age reports:
People with knowledge of the planned push said the ads won't go after Google, or Yahoo for that matter, by name. Instead, they'll focus on planting the idea that today's search engines don't work as well as consumers previously thought by asking them whether search (aka Google) really solves their problems. That, Microsoft is hoping, will give consumers a reason to consider switching search engines, which, of course, is one of Bing's biggest challenges.
"If you grab the average user off the street and ask them, 'Does search suck?' I think they'd say no. They don't know what else can be done," said Shashi Seth, a former Google executive who is now chief revenue officer at Cooliris. "They think search does a pretty good job, and if you could prove otherwise with a product that's differentiated, people will sit up and take notice."
Microsoft does have some serious marketing challenges ahead. And it's not just because the company's search product is in a very distant third place behind Google and Yahoo.
Earlier this year, we asked several Seattle residents whether they knew the name of Microsoft's search engine. None did. (In case you were wondering, it's currently called Live Search and it represents about eight percent of the market.)
Speaking of Live Search, paidContent's Joe Tartakoff reports that a Bothell operator of music schools has owned the Live Search domain name for the past 13 years and hasn't been willing to sell it. And he points to a report by Liveside.net saying that Microsoft could face its own trademark issues related to Bing.
Ad Age had a similar report on Microsoft's advertising efforts for its search engine last month.
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