Advertising Archive

More on how I met Andrew Sampson on the community site and how this interview came to happen!

There are more interviews like this on the way…..

I’ve been doing search for 9 years. Except for 10 months in 2001 when I was a display advertising traffic manager for BTLooksmart, search engine marketing has been what I do.

From “Submit-a-Site” and BidSmart to managing blue chips at 24/7 and being part of the team that launched Microsoft adCenter in the UK, the keyword has been “search” and I’ve loved every minute of it.

But more recently I’ve been focused on the social media aspect of what our Microsoft Advertising Community team does. We were originally set up in 2006 to help and support advertisers as they signed up to adCenter. We were also on the frontline at events for answering questions about the platform and dealing with all the suggestions on how we might improve.

As the months have gone on, the way we’ve done business – via blogs and forums – has become more and more important. Social Media Marketing is now almost a given where 3 years ago it was seen as a luxury or nice-to-have.

Last October, when our team moved under Mark Young in Global Trade Marketing, he asked why were only doing this kind of work for adCenter? Why not work towards helping our other audiences in research, mobile and display have a direct feedback mechanism to the product & marketing teams that build the tools they use every day?

So in June we launched the Microsoft Advertising Community site! It’s a vibrant hub of social activity in the forums but also on the different blogs and this is where my “role tweak” comes in!

My area of focus is now the Microsoft Advertising Blog – this is where we’ve already on-boarded Young-bean Song and the Institute guys, we’re also talking about in-game advertising, mobile advertising and display.

This will grow, as will our social media foray. We now have @MSAdvertising @adCenterBlog and @adCenterRep and our Facebook Page cranking out tips, tricks and announcements and I’ll be looking to build our following globally to help continue our support of an industry we’re so passionate about.

So it’s not huge news, it’s not a new job, it’s just a change of direction for me from search and PPC to other forms of digital that need the same love, the same explanation/education, the same feedback and evangelism channels that we’ve been giving to adCenter for the past 3 years.

We’re also going great guns on events too – Cannes Lions and Advertising Week were very exciting and successful for our team with tens of thousands of interactions with our Tweets, posts, photos and videos, so it’s not like I’m chained to my desk either!

And it’s also not like I’m not keeping my hand in with search either. With all advertising becoming digital in the next 5 to 10 years, having an understanding of all marketing in the mix is crucial for anyone’s success in this space so Bing it on!!!

Any feedback, and ideas then shoot them through. I’m always listening!

Check out the new TV ad for the Microsoft Windows Phone I wrote about on the Microsoft Advertising Blog last week.

The phone is positioned as having an operating system which can cope with the demands of both work tasks and play stuff like social networking, web and music.

Spent the weekend down in Devon and walked from Budleigh Salterton up the river to Otterton where we stopped for a pub lunch.

Ashley picked chicken and mushroom pie while I plumped for the mussels and chips.

Tomato sauce being obligatory on such occasions, we grabbed a handful of sachets and took our pints of bitter to the beer garden to await our feast.

On close inspection of the packets, we came across, not ingredients, but “allergy advice”!

May contain: Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Mustard, Celery, Wheat, Fish, Eggs, Soybeans, Milk, Sulphites and cereals containing Gluten.

Not sure if the advice was that necessary because, to be honest, it tasted just like tomato sauce and there wasn’t enough room for a peanut!

A bit sweary, but adds to the ridiculousness of what must be happening out there in marketing-land to folks who don’t read the right books or blogs!

I’ve started unfollowing and blocking anyone on Twitter who calls themselves a guru – if you can’t wrap your feet around the back of your neck and you don’t have books and films written about you – you aren’t a guru so get a life!

Thanks to Lorna for the tip!

Interesting buzz-vehicle from LG.

Recall 5 of your “Chocolate” mobile phones with specific serial numbers and hand out $50k as a reward!

If you have one of the handsets knocking around, maybe it’s slipped down the back of the sofa or you know someone who’s sported one down the pub, make sure you check out the numbers below and I’ll have a Fortnum & Mason Hamper for letting you know!

802KPAE821224
803KPBF578597
803KPXV578330
803KPVH578503
803KPJP923836

But hurry – the offer ends on 30th September!

So this is the demo of Looking Glass that Stephen Kim gave at Advertising Week in New York a few days ago.

A few hours before I’d published a post about the code-named LookingGlass which outlined its features, but more importantly that it’s a proof-of-concept and just one of a number of projects teams at Microsoft are working on to really start making sense of all the data available within the social media space and make it actionable.

I interviewed a few folks after the presentation and the reception was great. What agencies and advertisers alike were excited about was the ability to layer external data on top. So using APIs you’ll have the functionality to add in call centre numbers or sales information to really knuckle down and spot trends or potential pitfalls that you can then do something about, and quickly!

We’re excited about the great coverage on ClickZ, AdAge & TechCrunch and from Andy Beal and I know Jamey and Marc will relish more of your thoughts!

Well we’re having a blast over here in New York, working hard – 18 hour days – and playing hard for the rest of the time!

Feel very privileged to have been in the front row at Yusuf’s speech which I wrote about on Monday and there’s been a tremendous reception for my post on Ashton Kutcher’s keynote conversation yesterday.

Today we’re announcing LookingGlass and doing a ton more Tweeting and Blogging.

But check out the demo Yusuf does in this video. If you don’t have 40 minutes for the whole thing then just fast forward to the Bing demo at about 10.30 and that jaw dropping virtual reality stuff at 21 minutes!

Now I’m in AdWeek NYC mode, but got I just pinged about the Guardian Advertising Summit in October which looks like it’ll be a great event!

Speakers include: Samir Arora from Glam Media, Damian Blackden from Omnicom Media Group Digital and Blake Chandlee from Facebook.

Get the full programme here and maybe see you there!

Yesterday I posted the competition!

Today the winners were announced as a marriage proposal from Phil Lee to his girlfriend Jackie Haworth who said yes!!!!

Awwwwww! As someone who’s been married for exactly a month today, I think they should sell it to pay for the wedding!!!