This summer Microsoft Advertising will move to the next stage in its evolution. At least this is the promise from Mark Young, general manger of the Global Trade Marketing Advertising team. The move is planned to coincide with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, which is scheduled to take place between June 21 and 27, 2009. Young indicated that the software giant had been cooking a new look for Microsoft Advertising, but that a fresh feel as well as an overhauled tagline would be delivered. Microsoft Advertising currently attempts to “connect with your target audience across multiple digital touchpoints,” according to Microsoft.

“Our investments and our ongoing commitment to digital advertising is quite simple (no matter how complicated we try to make it at times) – we empower brands to extend the boundaries of creativity, consumer connections and customer intelligence. We deliver on this commitment to our customers and partners; we make it easy for media and technology to work together to delight and engage the consumer,” Young said.

Borrowing from the Windows marketing campaign debuted in the fall of 2008, Microsoft Advertising will focus on enabling customers to take full advantage of the commercial power associated with what the company referred to as a world without walls. The absence of “walls” is designed to be symbolic of the span that Microsoft Advertising has, on the Redmond company's portfolio of properties and across a 1 billion strong audience, on a daily basis.

“Before, if you were buying digital advertising from Microsoft, you were traditionally buying from MSN. But now with the growth in services like Hotmail, Messenger and adCenter coupled with the acquisitions of Aquantive, Massive and Screentonic, and with Xbox Live becoming an amazing reach vehicle, it became necessary to combine all these great marketing assets under one brand,” Young added.