At Advertising Week 2006 in New York, Microsoft is set to unveil a new unified global advertising initiative. Under Digital Advertising Solutions, advertisers will be able to more easily reach customers by packaging Microsoft's products, including Xbox, MSN, Windows Live, Office, Windows Mobile, and Microsoft TV under one advertising solution.
Clearly Microsoft is not only targeting Google and Yahoo with this advertisement push, but also TV and print media as well. With the likes of personal video recorders and Media Centers, the 30-second commercial is become less effective, and print media has been slowly declining for a long time. Although all media is important, advertisers are going to look for the company with the most impact, and Microsoft is trying to be that company. With such a wide diversity of products and services, Microsoft will be able to help advertisers intercept more consumers, more frequently, and more effectively. Obviously with Google demonstrating that advertising can be very profitable, Microsoft is now playing hard for this key market.
Microsoft is betting that advertisers will love to reach the more than 465 million consumers through MSN, and millions more globally through Windows Live, Xbox Live, and Office Online. In addition to the advertising solutions provided by recent releases of Live Search and Live Local, Microsoft is also looking at partnerships with social networking service Facebook, and the recent aquisition of in-game advertising network Massive, which was announced at the MSN Strategic Account Summit earlier this year.
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@Matthew