Ill be in Austin on Friday for the South By Southwest Interactive conference. Its my first time at the conference but Microsoft has a great presence at SXSW again this year. Microsofts own danah boyd , an expert in social networking research, will be the opening keynote speaker on Saturday. Chris Pendleton of Bing Maps will present a panel on Augmenting Maps with Reality on Sunday . Bing Maps has a lot of great new features and youll want to see how these are being used.

Below is a list of Microsoft speakers that will be out in force imparting marketing insight and best practice at OMMA Global in San Francisco next week. The event will be trying to answer some burning questions: What effect will an UNBOUND Web have on advertising and marketing? How will GPS-enabled geo-targeting change the way marketers and brands interact with consumers, and ultimately, what brands they consume? As we become connected everywhere, all the time,

Just back from holiday to find that those fine folks at Search Engine Watch have posted a video interview I did with Lisa Myers from Verve Search after her Social Media 101 session at SES London. In 2 minutes Lisa tells us where companies should start, that it's not all about Twitter and Facebook, and how not to get swept away by the phenomenon.

Digital has never been more important for brands that are seeking to communicate and engage with their customers, this is especially true when speaking in terms of purchase decision-making and brand perception. As digital media battles for its share of cash and eyeballs in an increasingly saturated market, advertisers find themselves faced with the age old challenge of demonstrating return-on-investment )ROI( to their colleagues in the boardroom,

Weve been blogging a lot about digital creativity , and we cant get enough of some of the great online execution opportunities that brands present us in the display field everyday. On our advertising site, we have an Ad Gallery which showcases some innovative advertising campaigns and includes some demos of what the ads looked like in situ. My favourite is the one for Bahamas Air. Nice placement for those looking to take a break perhaps?

Last Thursday )February 25 th (, the Marriott Marquis in New York City's Times Square played host to the 2010 Online Media, Marketing and Advertising )OMMA( Behavioral Targeting Conference. The event was attended by a mix of direct advertisers, interactive agencies, publishers, networks and data/analytics vendors. Overall, the event proved to be a great barometer for the US )and international( market's appetite for targeting â€" and advertising â€" to audiences online.

Continuing with the conference's theme of transformation, Darren Huston, CVP of Consumer and Online, Microsoft shared his thoughts what agencies and advertisers can do to stay ahead of the transformation. He compared it to the much needed forest fire that clears the old trees to give room for the new growth. Creating the movie " Avatar ", which took 5 years and hundreds of millions of dollars, is one recent example of ground-breaking transformation.

Is this the year of mobile? Thats a question Ive been asked every year since I joined Microsoft in 2005. And while Im not a medium, what I will say is that the increasing use of mobile phones for everyday tasks like surfing the web, social networking, reading the news, watching video and searching has created a new vigour amongst marketers keen to harness the power of targeting consumers on the move. At Microsoft Advertising we have a number of ways to get into mobile,

It seems that there is not a conference nowadays that does not include a social media track or session. And that's great - many marketers are realizing that social media is just as important as TV, radio, web or other forms of media. This year the organizers of 4A Transformation 2010 brought a great speaker, Jeff Hayzlett, CMO and VP, Eastman Kodak Company to speak about how his company transformed through the power of social media. In cowboy boots and with a Southern accent,

Transformation. What images does it bring to your mind? Change, excitement, new things, improvement over the current state, a little bit of anxiety about the unknown, growing pains, a Chevy Camaro from the movie "Transformers". After listening to a few sessions and talking to several folks in the crowd, my impression of the conference so far is "cautious optimism". On one hand, Nancy Hill, the president of 4A's,

Greetings from the 4A Transformation 2010 conference in San Francisco. One of the first presentations of the conference was a joint presentation by representatives of the magazine industry - Time Inc., Hearst Corporation, Meredith Corporation, Wenner Media, and Conde Nast. The speakers aimed to dispel several myths about the industry, the value it delivers to consumers and advertisers, and the relative value compared to other forms of media.

I'm David Pugh-Jones, a Brand Strategist working in the Global Creative Solutions Team for Microsoft Advertising. Effectively I'm a digital architect and evangelist for creative solutions focusing on ideation, craft and concept right through to the delivery of integrated and immersive brand experiences. Following on from Mel's recent posting , over the coming weeks myself and some of my colleagues will be adding our thoughts and insights from the world of creativity.

When I was growing up, cutting coupons from the newspaper was a Sunday morning ritual. My mom cut coupons while drinking her morning coffee. There's a lot of news right now how coupon redemption is up for the first time in 14 years, but it's not through the newspaper, Moms are getting these coupons online. For kids today, that Sunday morning ritual is no longer Mom with her scissors and the newspaper, but instead with her laptop, and it's whenever Mom is online.

Weve been writing a few posts recently about creative campaign executions in the UK and US and wanted to highlight some from Asia. Below are three great examples of how display advertising can be engaging, have a wow factor and generate tangible results. Transformer TW case study Paramount Pictures, a major film distributor, wanted to promote its new movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ahead of its release in Taiwan.

Like most sports it's infinitely more fun to form a team to play or work together to reach a common goal. That's why Bing is proud to be teaming up with Sport Relief to help raise money for vulnerable and disadvantaged people both in the UK and in some of the world's poorest countries. So How Can You Rise to the Sport Relief Challenge? Between Monday 22 February and Wednesday 31 March 2010 , Bing will be counting searches to raise money for Sport Relief,

Life would be a lot easier for marketers if there were an answer to the question, "Exactly what media mix should I use to optimise my return on investment?" While we don't have the definitive answer, a recent study we commissioned looked at how ROI is affected by varying the media mix, and therefore provides some valuable insights. Themes covered include how the media interact with each other and specifically what impact increasing online spend can have.

Today, the US Department of Justice and the European Commission have both cleared the Microsoft - Yahoo! Search Agreement, a deal weve been working on for some while. If theres one thing I heard over and over again from advertisers during my 18+ months as head of Consumer & Online, its that when it comes to digital, they cant get enough. We believe this alliance will streamline the choices advertisers have to make in a very competitive market,

I never tire of hearing Jim Sterne speak at conferences. Known as the Godfather of online marketing, hes president of the Web Analytics Association , a prolific author of books on web metrics and hes even found time to blog for us ! Today he was delving into Social Media Metrics, something we talk about in our white paper . A bloggers dream because he talks in wonderfully eloquent and unique sound bites,

Were at a search conference, but search has no point if customers come to your site and cant find what theyre looking for. If your site is badly constructed or not designed with conversion in mind, you might as well give up. Traffic means little if youre not working to have your visitors take an action place an order, sign up for a news letter, navigate well and keep digging for more information. In Bryan Eisenberg s keynote just now,

The continual chatter on my blog post featuring Nick Utton from eTrade )not a lot of fans of the new babies( got me thinking about how we watch Super Bowl ads. Do you mind anymore if someone is chatting during the break or do you realize youre just going online to watch them later anyway? Lets face it a GREAT ad can get more views online in the months following the game then the 100million that see it during. )without giving numbers,