• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 15, 2015

After a challenging 2014, Microsoft is vowing to pick up its ad game over the next 12 months. Among other efforts, ad executives at the software giant are excited about multiscreen engagements, better data analysis, and increasingly contextual ad campaigns.

Bob Bejan, vice president of North American sales & marketing at Microsoft, points to The Emirates Airlines ‘Little Extras’ campaign, which ran from October 9 to December 4 across MSN, Windows 8, Mobile, Skype and Xbox.

“The campaign leveraged Microsoft’s unique multiscreen sequential storytelling capabilities to target in-market travelers,” said Bejan. “Passengers got involved in the story of their own journey and its ‘little extras’ … via a campaign told though the flight tracker across the breadth of Microsoft services on multiple screens and platforms.”

Similarly, Microsoft recently rolled out new cross-platform advertising on its recently launched MSN Apps for iOS, Android and Amazon devices. The MSN Apps include News, Weather, Sports, Money, Health & Fitness and Food & Drink.

Hired by Microsoft this past October, Bejan previously served as chief development officer at Publicis’ MSLGROUP.

While Microsoft doesn’t break out digital ad revenue numbers, it has been open about related challenges. “Consistent with prior quarters, display revenue remained under pressure,” Amy Hood, the company’s chief financial officer, said on an earnings call, in late October -- referring to the quarter ended September 30, 2014.

Along with various multiscreen efforts, Bejan said better data -- and more contextual experiences -- will help to turn around Microsoft’s digital ad fortunes.

“We are providing advertisers with a more complete understanding of their audience by bringing together diverse, cross-channel data,” Bejan said.

Microsoft is also investing in “Learning Labs,” which bring together marketers, advertisers and agencies to develop better experiences for specific audiences.

“A cool example of this is tapping into advances in search, automation and artificial intelligence such as our own technologies,” said Bejan. “Throughout last year, we have been applying the intelligence of Bing to predict things like the mid-term election results and the NFL playoffs.”