Summary
Following the successful launch of the Kinect - the voice and motion sensor controller for games console Xbox 360 - the goal for Microsoft in 2011 was to reach an audience beyond the Xbox's traditional core gaming group. Research showed that many "Family Timers" already owned a Nintendo Wii and didn't understand the distinction of the Kinect, instead viewing it as a Wii copycat. The campaign focused on what the Kinect did and could do, positioning it as a piece of the future that could be enjoyed in homes today. Kinect's familiarity scores grew by 18 points in the US and by 12 points in France. In 2011, the Xbox outsold the second-place console by over 2.7 million units.

Summary
Microsoft aimed to drive purchase intent for its key products (PCs, Windows Phone, Office and Xbox) during the holiday season with this multi-market campaign. The development stage was aided by use of both qualitative and quantitative concept research; ad performance was captured via brand tracking and media measurement. The creative focused on family life, with the brand promise being that Microsoft products bring people together. Post-campaign, purchase intents increased for all of the products which had a historical average for TV.

Summary
This research offers an in-depth analysis of how social media brand impressions reach Fans and Friends throughout Facebook, as opposed to just on brand Fan pages. The study profiles three major brands – Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and Microsoft Bing – to show the impact of these impressions on Fans and Friends and help illustrate how brands today need to be thinking about their social marketing initiatives.

Summary
This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Microsoft Corp, the owner of brands such as Xbox. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the U.S. company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the leisure market. Brand opportunities and strategy are identified and recommendations for the future offered.

Summary
Microsoft's internet search engine, Bing, launched in 2009 into a market dominated by Google and its share remained stagnant despite a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. To increase usage and share, Microsoft decided to position Bing as a modern choice and target a younger audience, traditionally suspicious of advertising and product claims. A non-traditional approach saw Bing partner with the music star Jay-Z to coincide with the launch of his forthcoming autobiography, Decoded. A digital gaming experience was built directly on Bing Search and Bing Maps, allowing fans to discover each and every page of the book. During the month of the launch, Bing.com witnessed a 10% increase in traffic and its overall market share of internet search went up to 11.5%.

Summary
Microsoft needed to promote its Windows 7 operating system to Australian consumers. Noting that the operating system's sharing features were especially attractive to students, it launched a campaign that encouraged students to help promote the product. The company offered the student who shared his or her opinion of Windows 7 with the most people the prize of seven months rent free in a house provided by Microsoft. Going beyond the expected Facebook shares and tweets, students created videos, used guerilla marketing tactics, put advertising in live gaming, and more. Just 7,427 students created 10.4 million brand impressions, which was 2,080% beyond the goal.

Summary
The best advertising campaigns expose basic, yet hidden enduring truths that have lasting product relevance but in this age of social media, marketers know that the conversation moves on almost on a daily basis. If brands are now at the whim of a non-fiction, raw conversation, then how do agencies embrace this unpolished dialogue? The answer could be in brand journalism, where audiences are engaged in discussion about the brand with compelling content created using journalistic techniques. Brand journalism challenges the brand to take a position and defend it, while allowing the audience to form its own opinions.

Summary
In this report from Spikes Asia 2011, Microsoft's Stephen Kim posited that digital platforms have provided a new space to tell stories and new opportunities for marketers, but it is taking time for marketers to adapt the way they think about communications. He provided examples of advertisers that are looking at new ways of storytelling including the Lexus CT Hybrid launch and Intel's Creators project. He also suggested that while different countries will move in different directions, Korea is setting many trends. He also considers future obstacles and developments in the area.

Summary
Microsoft launched their Windows 7 program by using the small northern Spanish town of Sietes. The aim of having Sietes as the focus of their launch was to show how simple the product was to use; the town had no more than 40 inhabitants, most of whom were computer illiterate. Microsoft created a school, where these residents could have lessons to teach them how to use Windows 7, and eventually become experts in the product. It was the aim of Microsoft to showcase in this example of a town like Sietes, the simplicity of using the program, due to the problems they had encountered previously with Windows Vista. The company aimed to use the campaign to regain user confidence, strengthen brand image, exceed the sales launch of Vista by 5% and to see a 100% investment return of the product. The importance of credible storytelling to convey the message in both a simplistic and unique way had great success in the whole country, creating $2.8 million of media value both in Spain and Internationally and the total number of Windows 7 licenses forseen for the whole year were sold in 10 days.

Summary
Microsoft, the US software giant, needed to clarify its commitment to the fast-growing, highly competitive world of service provision in the Cloud computing, in which services are provided on demand from distant virtual networks of computers rather than on the user's desktop or server. Microsoft needed to understand the main barriers to adoption of its Cloud-based services, and to gain greater insight into the mindset of its target audience of IT decision-makers. Microsoft also wanted to be able to optimize its media and messaging mix during its Cloud campaigns. An extensive research programme fed into a two-stage communications campaign that aimed to affirm Microsoft's commitment to Cloud computing and to establish the company as a leader in this space. The resulting campaign featured a viral online video designed to educate and persuade decision-makers, a series of downloadable online white papers featuring influential commentators, and a number of PR and event initiatives created to amplify the company's paid-for media investments. The work was kicked off with a buzz and influencer seeding programme, followed by print executions and online videos. This case study cites results following the campaign such as improved leadership scores for Microsoft in this sector, and more than 300,000 downloads of white papers from its website.