14 DAY TRIAL // Mark Penn, the man behind the Scroogled campaign that Microsoft used to bring to light some of the unfair practices used by Google with some of its services, has decided to leave the Redmond-based software giant and form a new investment company with funding from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
The new investment advisory company, called The Stagwell Group, will invest in advertising, research, data analytics, public relations, and digital market services, and has already received $250 million in investment capital, partially thanks to Steve Ballmer, whose amount of funding is yet to be disclosed.
"I believe in the ability to invest, grow and even shake up firms in the marketing industries," said Steve Ballmer in a statement this morning.
Penn is obviously happy to continue working with Steve Ballmer, as the two previously collaborated on several projects, including Scroogled.
"With Steve's support and my experience in politics, marketing and technology, I will seek out investments in the exploding digital marketing arena," Penn stated. "From finding soccer moms to uncovering Microtrends. I have always believed that data and creativity have to go together and that creative talent needs to be nurtured. We will be looking for investments that understand those principles," Penn said.
Penn and Ballmer at Microsoft
The Scroogled campaign was launched by Microsoft in 2013 to uncover the tactics that Google resorted to in order to bomb users with ads, but also to show the difference between Microsoft’s and Google’s services, such as Outlook vs. Gmail and Windows laptops vs. Chromebooks.
But since Satya Nadella replaced Ballmer at the helm of the company last year, Microsoft has completely changed its approach, becoming a more gentleman player in the tech industry and dropping the Scroogled campaign silently.
A statement on why exactly the company decided to give up on Scroogled is yet to be provided, but it’s pretty clear that such a strategy isn’t quite Nadella’s cup of tea, as the new CEO has always been a pioneer of a friendlier approach, not only towards rivals but also in the relationship with customers.