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Bing Hopes 3-Month UK Ad Campaign Can Wipe Away 10 Years of Sucking Wind

posted on March 8, 2010


I don’t remember what Microsoft’s search engine share was, when I left the UK in the summer of 2000, but I’m pretty sure it was a lot better than the current anemic 3%.

According to the Guardian, Microsoft would love for Bing to recapture those glory days and is willing to spend the rest of its natural life next 3 months trying to claw it back.

The three-month campaign, which includes three TV ads created by the agency JWT, starts on Wednesday and uses the strapline "Bing and decide". The ads aim to show that Bing simplifies the "information overload" that accompanies the results of many searches.

The TV campaign will run solidly for a month and then in two-week bursts until mid-June. It will be backed by a digital campaign across Microsoft’s network and on media including social networking websites.

Three whole months, huh? Way to lay it all on the line Microsoft. You lose market share over a 10-15 year period and expect to win it all back by reaching consumers while they’re watching Coronation Street?

Of course, I know that Bing’s ad campaign won’t run for just 3 months–just this particular push–but consider this: Google achieved 90% share in the UK via word-of-mouth. Bing has been available to UK users–albeit in beta–since June. If they felt that Bing was truly revolutionizing search, they would have pushed the needle already. Right?


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  • http://www.SEO-writer.com David at seo-writer.com

    I tend to agree with you. Google is like the government of the day. The opposition parties can do all they wish to try to unseat the government, but in the end it is the governing party’s election to win or lose. All the opposition can do is be prepared to capitalize on the government’s goof-ups.

    This does not bode well for Bing. Except for a few webmasters frustrated with their rankings, most people like Google and have no interest in considering a changing of the guard.

  • modelportfolio2003

    @Andy
    Google just completed a highly successful billboard campaign on billboards and buses and trainstations, etc in London and in major European cities, combining how people optimize their search on Google as well as some light humor. Microsoft following in their footsteps. $2 billion tells me they are still making obscene profits on their Windows/Office monopoly but this well change soon when Google launches its free Google Operating System, Chrome. Microsoft profit margins to erode so less likely we will see these Hail Mary type ads from them in future.

  • http://www.rypmarketing.com Adam Thompson

    My issue is, I haven’t seen how Bing really simplifies the so called search overload.

    For example, Bing ads in the US claimed to cut through nonsense for searches like tickets to Hawaii. That’s just not the case, though. Google results are targeted and good for that search.

    Bing results appear to be slightly more targeted while sacrificing authority, but the problem is that they have irrelevant news results at the top. One of them today was “Hawaii lawmakers considering tighter regulation of mopeds”. That’s exactly the “search overload” they are claiming to cut through. Bing has search overload, Google doesn’t.

  • http://www.delikadir.net komedi

    This does not bode well for Bing. Except for a few webmasters frustrated with their rankings, most people like Google and have no interest in considering a changing of the guard.

  • http://www.delikadir.net komedi

    Bing results appear to be slightly more targeted while sacrificing authority, but the problem is that they have irrelevant news results at the top ?

  • http:/www.crearecommunications.co.uk Luci

    I’m not sure that a 3 month (major) push is going to be enough from Microsoft to turn around Bing’s share. It will go a long way to increase the general public’s awareness of it, but I trust what Google shows me, and for reasons I can’t fathom, I don’t trust Bing’s quite as much. That’s what they need to turn round as quickly as possible.

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