New York — Ever since the departure of a series of high-profile ad exec, including the loss of Kevin Johnson, President of Platforms and Services, and Digital Sales GM Lisa Utzschneider, Microsoft trying to organize all of its myriad digital media assets for clients, Microsoft has lured former Time Inc. sales and marketing veteran Robin Domeniconi to serve as the new VP, U.S., Microsoft Advertising.
Domeniconi’s attachment with print media makes her a somewhat unexpected hire.
Beginning January 1, Domeniconi will assume take the title VP-U.S. advertising sales for the Redmond, Wash.-based software company, she replaces Mike Hard, who left the company over the summer. She will be reporting directly to VP of global sales and marketing Bill Shaughnessy. He had been handling both U.S. and global ad sales efforts since Hard’s departure.
As VP U.S., Microsoft Advertising, Ms. Domeniconi, who will be based in New York, will be responsible for audience sales representing a large section of the U.S. Internet audience, including visitors to MSN, Live Search.
The position demands some responsibilities previously held by Joanne Bradford, the former chief media officer for MSN who left in March to head national ad sales at Spot Runner. Bradford stayed in that position only four months, leaving in August to head U.S. ad sales at Yahoo.
Ms. Domeniconi has a past reputation of managing a stable of brands and products, something she will have to do at Microsoft, whose ad-sales products include the Xbox Live gaming system, a portal, a search engine, an ad network, mobile ads, online software and services and display inventory on Facebook and WSJ Digital.
Sales responsibility for MSN will be split between two executives. While Domeniconi will manage sales for the U.S. audience, global sales will be executed by Greg Albright, senior director of Microsoft digital advertising solutions. Albright was hired over the summer, and both he and Domeniconi report to Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy in turn reports to Brian McAndrews, SVP of Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Solutions.
McAndrews is part of a trio of online execs, including Yusuf Mehdi and Satya Nadella, who are presently reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft is still seeking a replacement for Kevin Johnson, who oversaw Microsoft’s online services business.
Although it becomes obvious that Domeniconi is not assuming Johnson’s place, the fact that is not apparent is who will be reporting to her. A company spokesperson said that the heirarchy would not be determined until she starts.
Since the past six months, Microsoft has placed a great importance on what it calls a generalist-specialist sales model, where a central sales force sells all of the company’s ad products, assisted by specialists in every area.
“Even if the business groups behind the sales force is spread across company, we funnel that activity through our sales force,” said Shaughnessy. Ms. Domeniconi, he said, has “strong familiarity with this kind of model.”
While Ms. Domeniconi may be a new name to the web-only world, she is very well recognized in the media world. Ms. Domeniconi was most recently served as senior advisor on media and digital initiatives at the private equity firm Avista Capital. Prior to that, she was president of the Media Group at Time, Inc. overseeing its 150 media brands. Prior to that she was the president-publisher of “Real Simple” magazine, where she expanded the magazine brand into TV, satellite radio, newspaper syndication, books, international editions and branded products.
“While I have enjoyed my advisory work, I am an operator at heart and looking forward to returning to a leadership role in the media industry,” she said in a statement. “[Microsoft is] great that it a digital company but it’s a media company too and that was just as important.”
Domeniconi’s tenure will commence on Jan. 1. While Microsoft Advertising’s reporting structure has yet to be finalized, according to officials, both veteran Microsoft sales executives Keith Lorizio (VP, U.S. sales, Microsoft Advertising) and Rick Song (Director of sales for the Eastern U.S., Microsoft Advertising) remain with the company.
Microsoft sites ranked third in U.S. traffic in September, attracting over 122 million unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google and Yahoo sites came in first and second place, respectively.
In a statement about the appointment, Microsoft said, “Robin’s addition to our talented and dedicated team is another step towards our vision of operating the preeminent advertising platform that enables our advertiser, agency and publisher customers to engage with their audiences in highly targeted, profitable and innovative ways.”
There is a long history of executives moving from the magazine world to lead sales in the internet space: In 2001 former Yahoo exec Greg Coleman came from Reader’s Digest and former Microsoft sales Chief Joanne Bradford came to the software giant from Business Week. More recently, another Time Inc. vet, Eileen Naughton, landed at Google, where she is leading display and video ad sales.