According to Advertising Age, Microsoft is planning to invest between $80 million and $100 million in campaigns to spread the word about its latest search effort, Bing. While everyone has been talking up a project named Kumo, AdAge reports that the Redmond company is hoping to launch the aforementioned 'Bing' along with a monster ad designed to target competitors like Google and Yahoo!.
Citing folks familiar with the matter, AdAge says Microsoft’s ad campaign will not target competition by name - a little different to the company's PC versus Mac series of television commercials. Instead sources say Microsoft is going to focus on planting the idea that today's search engines don't work as well as consumers previously thought. By asking them whether search really solves their problems, Microsoft is hoping consumers will consider switching search engines and give Bing a shot. As reported last week, the new search engine aims to cut down on the time users spend searching so the details of the ad campaign seem legit. It's just the discrepancy with the names left to figure out.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Kumo would sift through links that are of no use to us and organize results into categories. For example, a search for a certain model of car would throw up results with categories showing listings for parts, used car listings, online discussion forums and videos showing the vehicle. The end result (bit of search engine humor for you there) would see a drop in the number of clicks it takes to get you from your search engine to the site you're looking for.
Microsoft is currently number three in search and we doubt an $80 million ad campaign is going to push people to change, leaving behind Google or Yahoo! Still, we’re eager to see what the company has come up with.
