Microsoft has elevated Joanne Bradford to the position of corporate vice president of global sales and trade marketing, the company said Tuesday.
In her new position, Bradford, who
formerly served as chief media revenue officer, will be responsible for ad sales across all Microsoft properties, including MSN, Xbox and mobile applications, as well as the upcoming Windows Live and
Office Live ad-supported software sites.
Microsoft began moving in the direction of consolidating all its media properties with the introduction of adCenter--Redmond's answer to Google's AdWords
and AdSense advertising programs. AdCenter, which is currently in beta testing in the U.S., is set to go live in June of this year, and aims to be a clearinghouse for ads across all MSN
properties--not just the MSN search engine or portal.
One year ago, Microsoft consolidated its marketing and advertising buying departments as well, consolidating several of the firm's disparate
communications groups under a new global marketing and communications group headed up by Mike Delman.