12 March 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Bing sponsors The Simpsons on Channel 4

Microsoft's mission to make Bing a household name on the UK airwaves has seen the company's search engine become the new sponsor of The Simpsons on Channel 4, coinciding with the show's 20th anniversary.

According to Campaignlive.co.uk, this will be the first time Microsoft has used TV sponsorship to promote its products. The Silicon Valley software giant previously planned to use the more controversial Family Guy to promote its Windows 7 launch in the US last October, until plans were scapped when executives watched the taping of the show and felt that its risqué subject matter was "not a fit with the Windows brand."

The Bing idents have been created by Interpublic agency Universal McCann, and will be placed before and after episodes of The Simpsons on Channel 4 and Channel 4 +1, as well as during ad breaks. The idents will reportedly feature a family using the Bing search engine to solve problems.

The idents air in the same week that Microsoft launched its Bing TV advertising campaign in the UK. Created by JWT London, the Bing TV ads question the need for "information overload" and aim to encourage web users to try out a different search experience with Microsoft's 'decision engine,' as Bing hopes to take some market share from the Mountain View giant.

Google's dominion over search is even stronger in the UK than in the US, with Google accounting for 86 per cent of the UK search engine market share in January, according to Neilsen Online statistics. Bing only held four per cent of the UK search market in the same month, along with Yahoo!

The situation is a little rosier for Microsoft in the US, with the latest comScore figures revealing that Bing gained market share last month to now account for 11.5 per cent of the US market, compared to Google's 65.5 per cent.