Microsoft Recaps adCenter at Analysts Day

Microsoft held an analyst day to brief key industry people of its operations and share strategy for the company going forward. Discussion related to advertising was decidedly a restatement of what’s already been said about adCenter and other advertising initiatives, with a backing of statistics.

The importance of creating compelling user experiences and providing value to target audiences was stressed by Kevin Johnson, co-president of platforms and services division at Microsoft. He said Microsoft is uniquely positioned to take a piece of the growing online ad spend. Its advantages lie, in part, in the many platforms Microsoft software touches: PC, Media Center edition PCs, Xbox and Xbox 360, IPTV and mobile phones and devices just for starters.

To specifically discuss adCenter, Johnson brought out Yusuf Mehdi, chief advertising strategist at Microsoft who was pleased to disclose that adCenter passed its first million dollar day ahead of expectations. The rest of his discussion served to reinforce adCenter initiatives. While he went over the finer points of adCenter, like time and daypart targeting and the statistics derived from the tool to manage campaigns, he briefly touched on prototype enhancements. One was the ability to advertise on specific MSN sites and drill down to very specific publisher sites within the network. Future enhancements are also expected to handle both keyword and display ads in one interface.

The discussion serves as a good recap for adCenter’s capabilities, and gives a scope of how much of Microsoft’s business is touched by advertising.