This is a guest post by Mel Carson – Digital Marketing Evangelist at Microsoft Advertising
Last week, while 140k people crammed into the Las Vegas Convention Center to gawp at and fiddle with the latest gadgets, gizmos and electronics, some of the biggest names in advertising and marketing were meeting each other to figure out how the rapid pace of change in consumer media consumption would affect the way they tell their brands’ stories.
Our team from Microsoft Advertising was also in attendance, helping partners understand how the different touch points across MSN, Bing, Xbox LIVE and the Windows Phone and the different contexts in which they are used, can help bring a brand alive through rich, useful and engaging experiences.
So much free content is being driven by advertising, and as consumers get more sophisticated and vocal about what they want technology to do for them, it’s important for the advertising community and our partners to come up with innovative ways to get messages across that not only complement the content but creates advertising that invites interaction and doesn’t interrupt.
Spend on digital advertising is growing, but as Sir Martin Sorrell – CEO of WPP – told me on the ground in Vegas, it’s trailing a little of where it should be. He also says that mobile, and not just mobile phones, is the area most underfunded right now. A convergence of usage and design in mobile devices as people move seamlessly from PCs to tablets and phones (and bigger phones, see Windows Phone’s post on the Nokia Lumia 900), means smarter ways of telling those stories across those connected experiences have to be found.
As Frank Holland, who heads up our Advertising & Online business, wrote last week, advertisers are “hungry” for us to help them navigate the challenges new technology and shifting trends present, and they’re thrilled by new platforms like Kinect that can provide two-way interactions, quoting one customer who said, “If touch is like magic, Kinect is like a miracle.” The thrills gleaned from opportunities with Xbox were also echoed by Unilever’s Global CMO, Keith Weed, when I chatted to him as well.
CES was a success all round for Microsoft both with our consumer news and the reception our teams got at the booth, but it was also a success in the B2B area as well. As Steve Clayton wrote in his wrap up, people want to see more of “what’s next” from teams from all over the company, and there’s plenty on the way from Microsoft Advertising.
When it comes to digital storytelling through Microsoft products and services, there’s more to the story….
Cheers
Mel
