If you've ever been to the Cannes Advertising Festival and spent some time in our beach club, or if you've ever been to the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas and spent some time in the bar, you will have seen Microsoft Surface . At the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas last week, we unveiled Version 2 of this much talked about sensory experience. The original version kicked off with attributes such as object recognition and multi-touch capabilities. V2 leaps forward,

Its impossible not to be excited about the the opportunities open to digital advertisers right now. 2010 saw the rise of smartphones, the continued growth of social and the introduction of many new technologies into the consumer market, including Microsofts Kinect for Xbox 360 . But 2011 is going to be bigger; here are a dozen of my digital predictions and trends to watch this year. Please do let me know what you think what would you add to the list? 1.

In the advertising business, its all about getting your message in front of the right people. Sometimes that takes some trial and error as you figure out who those people are and sometimes you hit a home run right off the bat. Needless to say, finding that audience is like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow once you have it, its invaluable data. Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are one of those audiences; if your message, product,

With holiday decorations going up earlier each year, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, it can be tempting to think that the peak of the shopping season has passed. However, I wanted to take a moment to share some findings with our partners and friends that clearly indicate that shopping behaviors have fundamentally changed in recent years. Many shoppers are becoming savvier,

Its well-known among marketers that women influence as much as 85% of household purchases. But how many times have you seen a commercial or advertisement that misses the mark )a certain controversial auto ad from last years Super Bowl may come to mind(? Here at Microsoft Advertising, we recently pounded the pavements of our MSN, MSNBC, Windows Live,

As promised in our post about Advertising on Kinect for Xbox 360 earlier in the week, here's a two and a half minute film about the Windows Phone and mobile advertising segment of our Innovation Day . If you're interested in advertising with us across multiple mobile devices check out the Mobile Advertising page on our ad site.

Advertisers are no less demanding now than they were before Microsoft introduced paid-content to its MSN portals circa 2000. And its no surprise. Digital advertising opens an exciting and competitive realm of potential for brands, wh ich advertisers hope to confront and use to build relationships with their consumers. Recently,

Clearing the Way to Your Door The weeks ahead of Christmas and Boxing Day in the UK are one of the busiest, and most critical time of the year for online retailers. This is the month during which annual turnovers are made, or missed. At the same time, thousands of stressed Christmas shoppers are searching the web for their products. So, how do you clear the consumer's way through the online clutter and deliver them to your door?

Multi-screen consumers are changing the rules for advertising in Europe, disrupting the traditional purchase funnel and creating new opportunities for campaigns that embrace multi-screen advertising solutions. Not only are multi-screen consumers more valuable, but the media multiplier effect can also make them more responsive. Our latest research report Whats On Their Screens.

Just had an email from those fab folks at IAB UK to say that tomorrow's event in London is SOLD OUT! A packed Mermaid Theatre are set to be thrilled by industry heavy-weights such as Yahoo!'s Carol Bartz, Spotify's Daniel Ek, YouTube's Bruce Daisley, researcher and broadcaster Dr Aleks Krotoski, and the icing on the digital cake, comedian Jimmy Carr. Our own Qi Lu, president of Microsoft's Online Services Division,

During my trip to Singapore and SES Hong Kong a few weeks ago, I was fortunate to get video time with some of the agency leaders in the region. In this first interview with Barry Couples, CEO of OMG based out of Singapore, we talk marketing data, consumer trends, effective measurement of digital advertising, and the digital campaign for Dell called Dell Swarm which was a huge success in Asia.

Enthralling video compiled from interviews and footage from our participation at Advertising Week. Experience multi-screen next-generation technology featuring live demos of Kinect for Xbox 360, Deep Zoom, Pivot, and Windows Phone 7. Learn how General Motors plans to launch the new Chevy Volt through emerging media platforms, and hear from industry leaders on emerging media trends and their impact on marketers.

Earlier today in New York, we notified employees of our in-game advertising business unit, Massive, that Massive technology will be redeployed to our first party ad business, focusing initially on gaming and eventually expanding to other Microsoft opportunities.

Today, MSN and BermanBraun announced the latest Wonderwall offering, Wonderwall Latino. This new online destination is directed at the U.S. Hispanic market and offers the latest on the lives of celebrities. The site is now live on MSN Latino http://wonderwall.latino.msn.com . The launch of Wonderwall Latino comes alongside a new site design for featuring richer content, including videos and social elements, which will be rolled out in a few weeks for Wonderwall U.S. users.

Jim Speros took the marketing reins of financial giant, Fidelity Investments, on the eve of the tumultuous Q4 2008 economic downturn. He shared his Top 10 list of how to best get through the challenge of a recession: 1. Advertising during an economic downturn pays off 2. Powerful, relevant ideas matter more than ever before 3. Engage your employees and treat them as an extension of your campaign )create internal brand champions( 4.

Anytime I attend a marketing conference, I am always on the lookout for the next newest thing what are the latest industry buzzwords? What are people talking about that they werent a year ago, or a month ago? What are brands changing about themselves? Joe Tripodi, the Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer for Coca-Cola, began his remarks today by posting a slide that looked something like this: And the entire room applauded. The basic message, clearly,

Mark Young talked about bringing the emotion to TV affordably through Admira not so long ago. When I found out the team were here at the ANA Masters of Marketing touting their wares at the booth, I was keen to find out more about the platform and bring you an interview with one of them. Up stepped Chip Scully who heads up their sales division, and in this 5 minute spot he tells us what Admira is, how it came about,

DAWN )Digital Advertising Womens Network( launched officially on Wednesday 13, October 2010. The first event sponsored by Microsoft Advertising and attended by over 130 women from digital media/marketing finally came to fruition after 9 months of planning. Founding members include: Cat Agostinho ) OMD (, Kelly Jacobson Collins ) MSN (, Kip Knapman ) Propel London (, Joanna Lyall ) Mindshare (, Caroline Mastoras ) Microsoft Advertising (,

Brrrrrrr its getting a bit chilly dont you think? Well OK, maybe its not that cold yet, but in many parts of the world the days are getting shorter, the umbrellas are out more often, and theres someone in every city selling roasted chestnuts on some sheltered street corner. This can mean only one thing..the holidays are just around the corner and the holidays )Christmas to our European cousins( means - among other things shopping!

William Ziff-Levine, Principal and Co-Founder of D&MC, kicked off AOLs Content, so what? session with a reminder about what consumers are really doing with their time online. According to two recent D&MC and Nielsen studies , 53% of consumers time is spent with content. The remaining 47% is spent communicating with others via email, IM and social networking. Ziff-Levine said consumers want content thats fresh, personal and contains compelling narratives.