Microsoft Makes Case To Be Content Leader

Lloyd BraunIn a strange twist of fate, former Yahoo colleagues Lloyd Braun and Scott Moore made the case on Thursday for Microsoft as a content leader during the company's second annual digital upfront in New York.

"We're all back together again," said Braun, a former Yahoo entertainment head whose production company, BermanBraun Interactive, recently partnered with Microsoft to launch the celebrity news and gossip Web site Wonderwall.

With Wonderwall, the goal was to "figure out a way to have the best program/site environment, and the best possible environment for display advertisers," Braun said. In the interest of increased engagement and page views, he added: "It's all about taking users on a journey."

Without the glitz or star power of its more media-centric rivals, Microsoft sales executives did their best to wow agency types in attendance.

"We will reach consumers everywhere," said Keith Lorizio, vice president of U.S. sales for Microsoft Advertising, as he proceeded to lay out the company's ability to reach audiences via TV, PC, mobile device, and videogame console.

As an example of the broad multichannel campaigns that Microsoft hopes to provide for clients, Lorizio pointed to Discovery Channel's present campaign for the fifth season of "Deadliest Catch."

"They wanted to own a platform and an audience," he said. "We were able to own 100% of the (marketing) budget."

Overall, according to Lorizio, Microsoft presently achieves 1 billion "experiences" daily with consumers around the world -- reaching some 32 million unique daily visitors online and over 25 million mobile users monthly.

"We are still viewed nationally as a technology company," Lorizio said. But, he added, "the depth and breadth of our content is second to none."

Along those lines, Scott Moore, MSN's executive producer and general manager (formerly Yahoo's SVP of news and information), outlined the company's existing lineup, as well as various projects in development.

"We have mass scale across every category," assured Moore, adding: "Entertainment is where we're going to make a big push."

Along with a lifestyle destination for adult women, another for parents, and a venue for TV and pop culture commentary dubbed "Last Night on TV," MSN's most original project is quite literally an "untitled workplace comedy" starring actors/comedians Dave Foley and Amy Davidson.

Perhaps including the name itself, "we will handcraft our show around who the sponsor is," said Foley, who might be best known for his work on "Kids in the Hall."

2 comments about "Microsoft Makes Case To Be Content Leader".
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  1. Malcolm Rasala, April 23, 2009 at 11:58 p.m.

    Microsoft a Content leader? Who is Lloyd Braun trying to hoodwink. You mean like Microsoft is big in Search or big in Social Networking?. Microsoft bless their sweet endeavours is always late to the party. They had/have one success, a big magnificent success: Windows. But in everything else including Content they are also-rans. Why? Well for one thing unlike say YouTube or NBC, or Fox or CBS or ABC etc they do not and cannot produce Content. They might attempt to carry the Content produced by others but hiring ex Yahoo men is not exactly likely to catapult them into the first league given Yahoo's image in the market. Microsoft will not
    achieve Content status as long as it thinks it is loved. It is not. Somehow strangely it is seen as a big bad wolf
    and no amount of huffing and puffing is going to change this. So Lloyd good luck in your endeavour but producing lightweight celebrity and entertainment tosh
    is not going to compete with Hulu and BBC and TVmyworld. Sorry Dude.

  2. David Thurman from Aussie Rescue of Illinois, April 27, 2009 at 7:48 a.m.

    Sorry Malcom, but I think you sound bitter towards MS, I see a company doing nothing different then Google or others, reaching for changes, adjusting their focus to stay viable.

    You could say the same for Google, BIG on search and playing follow the leader on other ventures, their G1 is proof that a late comer can make a difference, but yet Chrome is a wanna be.

    MS has been playing in the Mobi world for a fair amount of years, and has a decent following, almost open source in their methods.

    I hope MS finds a niche and comes back, I hope Google gets their G1 platform rolling strong (co-worker has one and it is hot, I use an HTC TP with WinMo and it's cool).

    Now maybe with Google, MS, Apple and others (big Apple desktop fan) we will see some new ideas and challengers that will make the web a better place, make our devices eat that information so we can digest it quickly and not waste time.

    There is room for improvement in all the mediums at the moment, the digital age is just starting to hit adolescence, soon we will see a mature medium that works, right...

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