08 March 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Microsoft launches Bing TV ads in the UK

Microsoft has launched a new TV advertising campaign in the UK promoting its 'decision engine' Bing as an alternative to Google, by mocking the "information overload" that often accompanies its rival's search results.

The Guardian reports that the $2 billion (£1.3 billion) campaign will begin this Wednesday and run solidly for a month, then continue in two-week bursts until the middle of June. Using the tagline 'Bing and decide,' the ads were created for Microsoft by agency JWT, and feature ordinary people requesting everyday information only to receive nonsensical "speaking-in-tongues" replies, intended to mirror the often-confusing search experience.

Microsoft has revealed that its campaign is directly targeting Google's dominance of the search engine market, which is even higher in the UK than in the US - the search giant holds 90 per cent of the UK market compared to Bing's modest three per cent share.

Microsoft UK's managing director and vice-president of consumer and online, Ashley Highfield, said: "This is a big moment - we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath."

Mr Highfield believes that Bing offers a real solution to the desires of consumers and advertisers, and hopes that the campaign will raise awareness of alternatives to Google. "People feel overawed by the internet and what they turn up when they are searching," he added.

"We are also in a world where people have forgotten there is an alternative search engine."

The managing director also said that a key aim of the campaign was to focus on Bing's "visually rich" offerings, compared to the plainer look of Google.

"It is a battle not just of mind but of heart as well," Mr Highfield explained.

"We are wanting to make an emotional connection - we are ploughing a different furrow here."