14 DAY TRIAL // There’s no telling yet whether Homer will swap his trademark “D’oh!’ for a new exclamation synonymous with the sound of found, but one thing is certain, The Simpsons are about to go ‘Bing’ in the United Kingdom. Microsoft has kicked off a marketing push for its search/decision engine in the UK, the first promotional campaign outside the United States, attempting to gain a foothold on the European search market in its battle against Google.
“As part of its new multi-million pound advertising campaign, Microsoft’s new search engine Bing announces its high profile sponsorship of The Simpsons on Channel 4, as the show celebrates its 20th anniversary,” Rob Margel, working in the Windows Services and Content team in the UK, revealed.
Microsoft has seen its strong advertising push pay off over the pond, as the company grew its share of the search market. US search data provided by comScore indicates that Bing has been attracting more and more eyeballs while Yahoo is on a downward trajectory, with Google stagnating. The Redmond company is attempting to catalyze a similar growth in the UK, although the best that the software giant can hope to achieve is small increments, as users are drawn away from rivals and partners (Yahoo) alike.
The UK marketing campaign will feature video advertisements based on the same concept as in the US, namely the promise that Bing is capable of filtering through the search overload and actually help customers find what they’re looking for. In addition, characters of the popular The Simpsons cartoon will also attempt to ‘sell’ Bing to their audience.
Users will find embedded below ads designed to announce that Bing is sponsoring The Simpsons. At the time of this article, the actual Bing video commercials featuring The Simpsons characters are not available. However, make sure to keep your eyes on this space, as I will make sure to provide an update as soon as they will be released.