“Microsoft is planning a pilot program to test ads on Zune Social, the social-networking site connected to its Zune music software and devices. In a limited way, it will also test the concept of ads on the Zune devices themselves. The initiative is expected to be announced today at the company’s advance08 advertising conference in Redmond,” Todd Bishop reports for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“It’s one of the first projects to emerge from an advertising business group established inside Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, working quietly behind the scenes since last fall,” Bishop reports.
“It’s one of the ways that Microsoft is trying to expand its footprint beyond standard online display ads and Internet search ads, where the company has struggled to gain ground against Google,” Bishop reports.
Bishop reports, “Mark Kroese, the group’s general manager, was quick to acknowledge that the concept of advertising on a portable media player might raise eyebrows for people when they first hear about it. (It would probably border on sacrilege for iPod users.) …’We’re thinking about the integrity of the user experience, and the appropriate way of doing this, where it feels like there’s value exchange, as opposed to, ‘Oh, this is just ads,” he said.”
“The Zune Social pilot [is] an example of how the group is approaching the idea of advertising within Entertainment and Devices, which also includes the Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Microsoft Surface, and Windows Mobile software,” Bishop reports.
“The Zune Social advertising pilot is set to launch this summer,” Bishop reports.
Full article here.
If a bear zunes in the woods, but there’s no one there to smell it, what’s the CPM?
Of course, if you’re trying to reach some of the world’s worst decision makers, obese purveyors of bad tats, store shelf dust mites, and egg-ducker’s 85-year-old uncle, you’ve found your advertising vehicle in the Zune.
It’s no wonder Microsoft continually gets its collective ass handed to it by Google in the ad game; they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
Because this test alone, Microsoft’s going to lose half of their Zune user base; all six of them.
We’re beginning to think that Zune exists only to assuage Melinda by supplanting Bob™ as the most-botched Microsoft product ever.