Microsoft is to launch a television advertising campaign in the UK persuading people to switch from Google to Bing.
Described as “taking on Goliath” by Ashley Highfield - the managing director and vice-president of consumer and online at Microsoft UK – the ads are to use the strap line “Bing and decide” and will run for a three months starting on Wednesday.
Microsoft have struggled somewhat since Bing’s introduction in converting users over from Google and none more so than in the UK where statistics on the search engine market share have shown that Bing owns a 5% market share compared to Google’s 90%.
According to The Guardian the ads aim to “show that Bing simplifies the “information overload” that accompanies the results of many searches” and are to “feature ordinary people asking for information and receiving nonsensical, “speaking-in-tongues” answers” which is sure to be a dig at Google.
Recent stats have shown that Bing is beginning to climb as its market share in the US grew by 5% in Jan 2010 to take the market share to just shy of 10%. The fact that Microsoft has already advertised Bing in the US may have influenced this to some degree. You get a sense that Bing’s presence lies very much in the generations X and Y demographic at the moment in the UK and so it is always going to be a struggle to convert people over from Google. However with the advertising campaign they have a golden opportunity to generate presence among silver surfers which could equate to some decent market share if scuessful.