Microsoft Archive

Pretty good 3 min video explaining the concept and outlining the undeniable benefits!

Thanks to Steve Clayton the the tip! 🙂

You may remember the contest I posted last week? Well the votes are in and I’m please to announce the winners are:

Matthew – AKA http://www.twitter.com/screename for “I’m A Graphic Designer” – good luck with the course and remember, there’s lots you can be learning while you’re working at McDonalds too!!

Gary Robinson – for “I’m A Socialist!” – very clever play on words! Maybe Matthew could mock up some T-Shirts with his new found graphic design skills!

All I need now are your addresses, so contact me through my contact form and I’ll send the prizes out ASAP!

Thanks for everyone who participated! 

And please….no Kate Winsletesque acceptance speeches! 🙂

During the latter part of 2008, not a day went by without someone pinging me for some of the I’m A PC stickers I have adorning my laptop!

Well 2009 has bought new riches to my desk in Cardinal Place in the form of blue and yellow stickers AND…………………………….two T-shirts!

“I’m A PC” Ts are like gold dust and you can see why from how fabulous I look in one! 😉

So I’ve decided to give them away in a competition which is tied to New Years Resolutions and Ambition!

The question is very simple:

“What will you be in 2009 and why?”

Imagine what you want to achieve over the next twelve months, and think what you’d want on an “I’m A ???” T-shirt at the end of the year.

I’ll start by saying I want to have a T-shirt saying “I’m A Super-Happily Married Man!”

Why?

Because I’ve started the ball rolling towards the most important day in my life and, although I know the next 8 months will be a logistical and financial challenge, I’ll try my hardest to get through it with as little stress as possible and with a huge smile on my face once I’ve said I DO!

Now that’s a pretty personal one but it can be career or work-related!

Over to you……comment below! I’ll pick the winner next week!

There’s a very cool ad running on MSN.co.uk today for Paramount’s Madagascar 2 Movie

Called a “SideKick” – the user clicks on the ad to see more and the whole page shifts left to reveal a choice of 3 preview clips and a game.

You can also win a WII so check it out at www.MSN.co.uk

I’m now 3 days in to a month-long stint at home in London and it’s very nice to be back!

Despite the leg-pulling about me having been “on holiday” for the past few weeks, I think most people understand it’s not all parties and airmiles! 🙂

Waking up in a Westin for me normally means reaching over and switching on the lappy and checking mail at 7am – pretty much doing the same thing last thing at night too.

Certainly not complaining though. I have a great job and get to do awesome things, meet amazing people in incredible places!

So where have I been?

Nick Drew of Search & Display fame at SMX London

Well on Wednesday 5th of November I was at SMX London boarding a plane that night for Tel Aviv to speak at the Rosh Pina Digital Festival – you can check out some photos here and here on our adCenter Facebook Page!

Transport from the festival back to the hotel!

I’d been invited to speak by the awesome Lior Zoref from our Microsoft Israel office.

He has a blog: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/liorz/default.aspx and although it’s mostly in Hebrew, if you don’t speak the language just watch one of his videos!

The enthusiasm is infectious even if you can’t understand what he’s saying all the time!

Check out video with Robert Scoble! Twitter’s sucked his brain!

His and the team’s hospitality while I was there was very friendly and I’ll definitely be back!

After a few days there it was back to London and then 18 hours later off to PubCon in Las Vegas where the week was a blur of learning, blogging, meeting and the odd beer thrown in for good measure!

One of the updates from our team was the launch of the FB Page and the fact I was live tweeting from: http://twitter.com/adcenterblog – so do become a fan and follow us too! 

A Young lady does a spot of welding at Search Bash!

After a week in Redmond in Seattle to catch up with some of the guys I’m back now till 18th December when I fly back to spend Christmas in Seattle with Ashley’s family!

Helluva trip but got a lot done although…………..I still have a lot to do…………..

Click………..

While in Israel for the Rosh Pina Festival I attended a dinner with local Microsoftees and some agency folk.

The only item in the good-bye goody bag was the Microsoft Arc Mouse!

Very often a corporate give-away might consist of a few bits and pieces but as you can see this little gem needed no help padding out the bag, much to the delight of the merry delegates as they made their way back to their hotel rooms.

   The Microsoft Arc comes with batteries and a little pouch. 

The USB stick is about the size of a 20p piece and doesn’t get in the way when plugged in.

The Arc Mouse folds up unobtrusively into a tiny ball. The USB stick is attached inside by a powerful magnet so it doesn’t get lost!

It just looks so cool! Also it’s very ergonomic to the touch and is extremely responsive to the slightest movement. The clicking action is silent but accurate and the scroller is very well conditioned.

I’m writing this in Tel Aviv Airport lounge and resting it on the side of a chair and it’s working like a dream!

This one’s set to have gadget-geeks hearts all of a flutter this Christmas!

They’re selling them on Amazon for about £32 so pick one up and I promise you, you’ll never put it down!

Landed early this morning in Tel Aviv, had a 2 hour cab ride to the Rosh Pina Festival, have met the local team and now am putting the finishing touches to my presentation! 5.30am Over Tel Aviv

Local office from the road 

Big Microsoft presence at the festival

Incredible views from the hotel!

Flying to Israel tonight to speak at the Rosh Pina Festival:

“Held in the picturesque Galilee in the northern part of Israel, Rosh Pina Festival, convening this year for the 9th consecutive year, is the most important annual media conference in Israel. In addition to the traditional renowned TV festival, this year the festival is going global and digital by launching an independent digital track.”

I’ll be speaking about digital marketing trends in Europe and showing a few fabulous demos.

Never been to Israel so am really looking forward to it, especially as I’m staying here: http://www.mizpe-hayamim.com – just in case you want to get hold of me! 🙂

Back on Saturday and then off to PubCon on Sunday!

See you there?

In these lean economic times, even Microsoft isn’t mad enough to keep flying me back and forth across the pond at every drop of a Tweet, so I won’t be going to SES Chicago in December this year.

I will be there in spirit though, but will miss the insight, chat and revelry in the snow! There are some great speakers lined up and it’s not somewhere I’ve been before so maybe next year! 🙂

December will be a quiet month for me as we wrap up 2009 after what I’m sure will be some great times at SMX London and PubCon which I will be attending.

Check out the adCenter Blog in a couple of days for some insight into what we’ll be talking about in a couple of weeks in Covent Garden!

The Windows Live Search team in the UK have launched Big Snap II at www.BigSnapSearch.com

In partnership with leading UK retailer John Lewis they’re offering 24 prizes per day from £25 up with daily £500 prizes.

One lucky winner will walk away with a £1000 shopping spree every week!

The idea is to drive awareness of Live Search and to increase leads for advertisers who advertise on Microsoft adCenter.

The first campaign, earlier this year, saw searches grow by a 3rd during the 8 week period and this one will be running till 5th January to take advantage of the Christmas buying season!

The game is based on the card game Snap!

The way it works is that consumers search for product and services and Live Search generates random cards at the top of the page.

If the cards match that’s a SNAP!!

If they don’t you LOSE – simple huh?

As my colleague Marie Thirwall says: “BigSnapSearch.com was a hugely successful mechanic to increase consumer awareness and understanding of all the cool features we have built into Microsoft Live Search. By engaging consumers in a fun, rewarding way we managed to double our search volumes, reaping huge rewards for our advertisers.”

Check it out at www.BigSnapSearch.com