Microsoft Debuts New Bing TV Ads; Begins Multi-Channel Promotion

Last night, those of you tolerating watching ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ were shown the very first broadcast of the new Microsoft television advertising campaign promoting Bing. If you missed it, Bing has a YouTube channel (yes, I know! a YouTube channel! from Microsoft!). Here’s one of the new ads:

If you can’t watch video right now, the ad depicts a couple discussing future vacation plans. When the wife inquires if her husband found tickets to Hawaii, he starts compulsively spouting off random results he received when searching online. The results aren’t helpful at all to their vacation plans. The ad calls this “Search Overload Syndrome” and says that Bing is the cure.

Enid Burns over at ClickZ has all the major details on the new ad campaign. The television campaign surrounding “Search Overload Syndrome” will switch to a more reality-based concept in about two weeks. Bing will begin in-show promotions soon including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Radio advertising will also be a part of the traditional advertising mix.

The television campaign will be complemented with an online ad campaign. Display ads will run on sites like the New York Times and Huffington Post. Meanwhile, Efficient Frontier is managing the search campaign. Yes, you will see ads for Bing on Google. (Try searching “cheap flights” on Google and you should see a Bing search ad.)

Bing is also going after social media. They have their own Bing Community as well as a presence on Facebook.

All of this is part of the estimated $80-100 million ad spend Microsoft is expected to make promoting Bing. That’s quite an investment and we’ll be awaiting the comScore and Nielsen data over the coming months to see if it’s making an impact.

Have you seen any of the new ads for Bing? What do you think of them? Leave a comment and let us know.