Redmond, Washington — Sensing the sheen sounds of social media clattering from around the world, everyone wants to socialize everything–possibly even capitalism itself, and on Tuesday, software giant Microsoft already having close ties with Facebook, has hitched up with Bazaarvoice to push a new social advertising solution called People Powered Stories.
The enterprising move from the software outfit is the first of several socialish capabilities the company will offer advertisers in the coming months. This was disclosed in a presentation from Jenn Creegan, General Manager for Display Advertising Experiences at Microsoft Advertising in her Social Media Week presentation.
The company’s newly announced advertising division unveiled its own social display ad product, dubbed as “PPS” will incorporate user-generated ratings and reviews about products within a rich brand ad, blog posts and videos within a banner ad, one seemingly heavily inspired by Facebook and represents an evolutionary step in what might be called social advertising, a Microsoft representative informed WebProNews.
Moving forward, Creegan addressed the new social selling strategy at Social Media Week in New York on Tuesday. Her message is that social can be useful and relevant, unlike a certain about-to-go-public firm that shall remain nameless.
Soon, Microsoft’s first campaigns featuring “People Powered Stories,” which is expected to launch in April will let media buyers incorporate user-generated videos, expert blogs, and even discussion forum content into their display ads.
“While we are still in the initial stages of unlocking the potential of social advertising, I am confident that we are moving into a world where the impact of social advertising will move beyond a ‘Like’ to a world where you can create and measure the value of social ads,” she wrote in a blog post.
On the other hand, on Facebook’s platform, user interactions with brands are adopted in various forms to imbue into them an air of authenticity and trust. Six of your friends like Adidas? Well, perhaps they are on to something, and you should try them out for your next pair of kicks.
“To accomplish this, Microsoft Advertising partnered with Bazaarvoice to integrate the consumer ratings and reviews into the PPS ad format,” the rep says. “Advertisers will be able to capitalize on Microsoft’s highly social and engaged audiences across multiple screens and deliver relevant ads in a way that is targeted and more measurable than is available for social advertising on the web today.”
In a blog post, Creegan further elaborated as–“We believe it will empower marketers with the ability to create ads that tell powerful stories and create brand relevancy beyond just a ‘Like’ by adding the authenticity and believability of real people’s real stories.”
Twitter reactions came shortly after Creegan’s presentation. Here is one, from Social Media Week attendee Doug Winfield:
Besides she says, As an industry, we apparently know the power of social and the potential it holds for advertisers to engage with consumers. We are also aware that people want to hear what others have to say about various products and services. Despite the brand dollars that are flowing toward social media, advertisers have told me they continue to be frustrated at how difficult it is to measure ROI and confirm whether they are successfully engaging their target audiences.
“Simply running display ads on social sites does not make those ads social,” BazaarVoice co-founder Brant Barton says. He further added that shoppers who interact with a product rating or review online are more than 100 percent more likely to purchase than consumers who do not consume that content.
“What make the social space different and powerful are the connections it creates between people. So unless the ad is also doing that–creating a connection between consumers around whatever the ad is promoting–is it really social advertising?,” he said.
Furthermore, as the unit will be available on all Microsoft-owned sites and sites that are part of the company’s publisher network, it will be ‘primarily’ available to Microsoft’s premium advertisers, Creegan said. Eventually Microsoft might expand availability to non-premium advertisers as well–“but presently the content exists in these signals really for those large advertisers because you have a user-generated content dependency for this to work,” said Creegan.
In addition, Microsoft also intends to expand the unit to mobile devices but presently does not have a firm time-frame in place. Asked if the mobile rollout will happen this calendar year, Creegan said “I would not want to predict, but I would not be surprised.”
The solution will be available next month.
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