LiveSide - News blog : Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft pubCenter beta goes public

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Microsoft pubCenter, an ad publishing tool (think Google Adsense) from Microsoft Advertising, after existing as a private beta for a number of months, goes into public beta today, April 22.

Kevin McCabe, Senior Product Manager for pubCenter beta, will be at AdSpace, (a part of the AdTech conference in San Francisco) today to announce the public beta and to speak on the state of contextual advertising.

pubCenter is actively seeking publishers to join and test contextual ads on their sites, and you can sign up for the beta at http://advertising.microsoft.com/publisher. You can get more information about the program on the pubCenter blog, also coming out of private beta today.

We’ve been using pubCenter for some time on LiveSide on a trial basis, and will continue to test it in the months to come:

While we can’t comment on reporting and performance, we are quite happy with pubCenter, and encourage you to give it a try on your sites.

UPDATE: Sorry forgot to mention that yes, the beta is still US only: "Note This is a U.S. only program at this time. You must provide a U.S. tax ID and address. "

Microsoft Advertising: “last click shouldn't get all the credit”

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:59:27 GMT

Last year at Advance08 Microsoft announced both a new name for their advertising strategy - “Microsoft Advertising”, and the concept of “engagement mapping”. The thought is that a consumer may look at numerous ads, websites, and brand impressions well before making the “last click” to make a purchase, so why should that last click get all the credit? Of course Google has built an empire on precisely the notion that the last click is the only valuable one, so it makes sense for Microsoft to attack it.

Today Microsoft reiterated its attack on last click thinking at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Annual Meeting. At the meeting, according to Twitter accounts of the proceedings, Howe likened last click to the NFL: “if the NFL only paid the top sco(r)ers, teams start losing because there's no defense or offensive line.”

Howe was “engaging, informative and entertaining” as he announced MS PubCenter (which has been in beta under the name adCenter Publisher) the Publisher’s Leadership Council and the Microsoft Media Network, although some in attendance weren’t entirely sold: “can MSFT be trusted as a leader in "Transparency and Trust"?"

The Publisher’s Leadership Council, according to a press release issued today by Microsoft,

“comprises digital media executives and discipline-leading practitioners, including charter members from IAC, Dow Jones Online, The New York Times Co., Time Inc. and Viacom Inc. This group will provide firsthand perspectives and insights to inform PubCenter features and functionality, including enhanced targeting, measurement and reporting functionality. Partner company executives will form a steering committee, focused on framing the key challenges and opportunities facing the digital media industry”

Microsoft is counting on changing the game in online advertising, and Howe said "Our competition isn't with each other. It's with offline, and waste”, but others weren’t so sure, saying: “this is not good for publishers. microsoft is not unbiased. more concerning than google doubleclick acquisition”.

Microsoft today also released some documents related to engagement mapping, purporting to show that “94% of online advertising interactions are actually occurring prior to a conversion or a sale and concludes that while web publishers are doing their job in engaging with consumers before they purchase, they don’t get the credit they deserve in reaching them”.

As Microsoft moves (or is pushed) into a more services and advertising oriented model, getting advertisers excited about changing the game away from last click thinking is emerging as a core strategy. Will it work, especially as the advertising world is shaken by the economy? Howe seems to think that “adversity must fuel innovation”. We’ll have wait and see if he’s right.

Live Search in Europe: Microsoft announces plans to open a Search Technology Center

Gregor — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:15:00 GMT

Microsoft today announced plans at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival to invest in Live Search in Europe. A new Search Technology Center will open sometime during the next twelve months in Europe. The location of the facility has yet to be determined. A smaller number of engineers is expected to be contributing off-site to the STC from multiple countries, possibly including, for example the UK, France and Germany.

While the press release quotes Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division, in saying that

"today Microsoft has 68 percent reach to Internet user throughout Europe"

it is clear that the move comes to disrupt Google's dominant position in the European search and advertisement market.

The center is modeled after the Search Technology Center that was opened in Beijing,China in October 2005. While working closely with the global Live Search organization the focus is on delivering locally relevant, more intelligent and powerful search experience - something that is still missing for European Live Search customers that currently only have access to the basic Live Search functionality. Many of the Live Search features that are available in the U.S. have yet to make their appearance in Europe - including the recently release Live Search cashback program or the Live Search Farecast functionality.

Ad supported Silverlight Streaming trial to begin

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:27:01 GMT

Microsoft Advertising is about to begin a trial where “we insert ads into the video stream as overlays, and cut you in on the revenues”, according to Ian Thomas in a blog post today. The trial will be initially available only for US residents with a Tax ID or Social Security number, and is apparently set to begin soon. You can learn more about Silverlight streaming, sign up for an account, and sign up for the trial.