The $500 million that Microsoft poured into the Wow marketing campaign for Windows Vista, has sold in excess of 40 million licenses of the operating system following the first 100 days of availability, but it has also contributed to making the Redmond Company the most prolific online advertiser at the beginning of 2007. According to metrics analytics firm Nielsen//NetRatings, Microsoft was the top online advertiser between January and April 2007.

"Whilst its not surprising to see technology and communications brands embracing online advertising, many will note how the finance sector - represented by brands such as HSBC, Barclays and Halifax - has an equally keen appetite for advertising on the web. What's also really interesting is that unlike other areas of online, advertising isn't dominated by the few. The top five search engines in the UK, for example, account for 96% of all searches, yet the top five advertisers account for less than 2.5% of all online ad campaigns ran," stated Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.

In this period Microsoft ran no less than 104 campaigns out of the total of 16,300 online ad campaigns. Microsoft along with 20 other companies managed to deliver almost 7% of all the online ad campaigns in the first four months of 2007. This is not a surprise for Microsoft, as the company has saturated both traditional media and the Internet with ads pushing Windows Vista and the Office 2007 System. Runner-up to Microsoft was Hewlett Packard. O2 came in third place, Fidelity Investments was fourth and Dell fifth.

"It's easy to forget that advertising online isn't all about paid or organic search. Display advertising continues to play a significant part in the online advertising mix; as proved by the fact there were 45% more advertisers, and 35% more campaigns run, this April compared to April of three years ago."