Microsoft re-launches advertising under a new brand

In a recent lecture we discussed rebranding, I wanted to share with you a real live example of Microsoft Advertising (a new brand launched only last week).

Justification for rebranding:
Over the past year, Microsoft has both launched multiple online advertising solutions + has acquired new firms i.e. Aquantive. This has left its clients confused to the say the least. New brand will pull together existing products such as Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group (APS), Atlas, AdECN, adCenter, DRIVEpm under “Microsoft Advertising”

Beyond the new logo:
The personality of the brand will be focused around 3 key areas:
1. Performance: media and technology offerings help advertisers and publishers drive superior results;
2. Insight: sophisticated data collection and analytics systems help provide critical insights to our customers about their business;
3. Expertise: talented and dedicated employees (all of you) bring a tremendous amount of expertise around media and technology to help our clients solve complex business problems.

Link to the new brand: http://advertising.microsoft.com/coa

Recent articles on the topic: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/technology/microsoft-highlights-breadth-mobile-advertising-advance/-1782649517
On a side note - From the article above, here is something we discussed/demoed in class
“Microsoft also announced plans to further expand its mobile offerings for advertisers to now include mobile search advertisements on Live Search Mobile. For the first time invited advertisers can create keyword campaigns through Microsoft adCenter that target customers on the go while they are using Live Search Mobile. This will be the first time that Microsoft has enabled advertisers to monetise its popular mobile search service. The beta is currently available in the US and will be expanded in the second half of 2008”