KeithL Imagine Stage

Our industry is evolving, which is creating an excitement—call it a buzz—that we can already feel on the first day here at Advertising Week in New York. The ads of today will not work tomorrow. We all know that consumer attention is fragmented, and that reaching people across screens is more effective. Multi-screen advertising is not new, and is something we’ve offered customers for years. But the missing link for us and the industry that needs to advance the next generation of digital advertising is a connected platform. So that buzz we’re feeling is our imaginations igniting over the potential for advertising to evolve with Windows 8, which will enable consistent and connected experiences across screens in a beautiful, brand safe environment.

Many of you may have heard Qi Lu, president of the Online Services Division at Microsoft, earlier today at IAB MIXX talk about how we’re building new assets with Windows 8 as the hub. Just look at the new MSN for Windows 8 that Qi introduced today. When we unify our consumer assets with Windows 8, advertising experiences can be smarter, richer, more relevant, seamless and more valuable to consumers. This consistent platform will give publishers, agencies and marketers the tools to unleash more functionality through a connected app layer.

We’re not looking to go at this alone. We want to collaborate and partner with the creative community and customers to design the ads—what will really be consumer experiences—of tomorrow. As we shared earlier this summer, we’ve been doing just that by partnering with creative agencies earlier than ever in the process to help us ideate and design what might be possible for advertisers on Windows 8.

So far the teams have created concepts for major brands that are beautiful and like nothing we have seen before. For more on the process and a few of the stunning ideas so far, check out my colleague Stephen Kim’s blog post. These initial concepts are not just new ad formats, but entirely new ways to engage consumers. Our goal is to help marketers seamlessly integrate and amplify their brand stories across the broad scope of the Windows 8 advertising creative palette in a brand safe way. Our initial publisher partners that have signed on so far, including AccuWeather, Associated Press (AP), Bonnier, NBC News, Photobucket, Slacker Radio, and Tribune Company, are also excited for the value this will bring.

The ad experiences that can be created are endless across the web, tablets, mobile, PCs and entertainment devices. This is just the beginning.

Tomorrow Stephen and I will be onstage at Advertising Week at 2pm to continue the conversation about how Windows 8 will ignite the imagination of advertisers with opportunities for deeper consumer engagement.

But don’t just take our word for it… You can also hear our agency partners speak on the co-ideation process and what they see as possible with Windows 8 for marketers at an Advertising Week panel on Thursday at 2pm. Here’s a sneak peek at a few comments we’ve heard from them so far:

“When we first looked at it, the reaction was wow, they nailed the user experience.” Chris Walton, Creative Lead, Online Advertising, Team Detroit

“Windows 8 allows us to tell stories …over a long period of time. It doesn't have to be a single or a one-hit wonder.” David Cohen, Chief Media Officer, Universal McCann

“Microsoft is actually going into market with a full ecosystem of products, from the phone to the tablet to the PC to all the other properties, like Bing and MSN. There’s not another company out there that has that kind of breadth.” Eric Baumgartner, Chief Innovation Officer, Y&R Group

“What I personally really appreciate about Windows 8 is how peaceful it is…it's more considerate of the people who will use it.”Mark Pollard, VP, Brand Strategy, Big Spaceship

I’d also encourage you to check out the IAB Global Summit panel that my colleague Jennifer Creegan, GM of the Display Advertising Experiences, will be participating in on Wednesday at 9:30am about the IAB Rising Stars; as well as the Advertising Week session on the “What Moves You” research presentation by Natasha Hritzuk, our global director of insights and analytics and Simon Bond, chief marketing officer at BBDO on Wednesday at 2pm. You can also follow us throughout at our Microsoft Advertising microsite for Advertising Week here.

Enjoy the rest of Advertising Week!

Keith Lorizio, VP of US Sales & Marketing for Microsoft Advertising