Jul 26, 2008

World - Windows Live OOH




Imagine driving down Tulsi Pipe Road in Mumbai and seeing a bus shelter that reads ‘Cooking Classes, Matunga’. You actually spot the institute on turning your eyes in the opposite direction. Cool, isn't it? Microsoft grabbed the attention of passers-by and commuters through innovative bus shelters in order to popularise its Live Search service. Live Search is a unique search engine featuring an innovative and friendly user interface and powerful organisational tools designed to place the user in control. The service features simple precision tools such as search preview, a detail slider bar that increases the level of result information on the results page, and a smart scroll that enables people to view search results without moving pages. The service helps people to customise their search results by preference, and extensive search categories deliver better and more customised results.
The innovative OOH campaign, titled ‘Think It, Find It’, was done in Mumbai. It consisted of bus shelters featuring a Live Search bar with search keywords. What's interesting is that these keywords were customised to a specific location. For example, a bus shelter in Bandra read 'Tattoo parlour, Bandra', while the one in Kandivali read 'Power yoga classes, Kandivali'. Maya Hari, head, consumer marketing, online services group, Microsoft India, says, “The objective of the ‘Think It, Find It’ campaign was twofold. One was to get some visibility for Live Search in the market, given that in May we launched a host of exciting additions to our Live Search product, such as local search, differentiated video search, celebrity search (including the most popular searches by Indian consumers) and Image search with cool sorting ability. Cool sorting ability enables the user to specify searches, for example, only images with faces or only black and white images. Secondly, we wanted to get consumers curious about something fun and yet relevant and then drive users to try Live Search.” Hari says that the customisation was done to tickle the curiosity of consumers in a way in which they found the creative intriguing and relevant. “Seeing a Live Search bar on a bus shelter with the search keywords tattoo parlour, Bandra, or PG accommodation, Vile Parle, are examples of the kind of information that people are searching for today in any case,” says Hari. In fact, the creatives on the bus shelters were placed close to the points displayed. For example, if it said 'Tattoo parlour, Bandra', one could actually spot a tattoo parlour close by.
The displays were put up at approximately 30 locations across the city, mainly popular youth hotspots and arterial roads. The initiative was a two month activity in Mumbai and options are open to carry it to other major metros and mini metros. Live Search also offers a unique video search experience. “Say you search for Hrithik Roshan or Beyonce in the video search, you will get a whole bunch of relevant videos as results. What is extremely appealing to consumers is that when they run their mouse over any of the video results, the video plays right there, so you don't actually have to click on the video, go to the page and then find out whether this video is interesting or not,” says Hari.As for the creative, the aim was to use humour to arouse curiosity about the video search. Hence the line on a creative tells users interested in 'Bollywood, Hollywood, Tollywood or any other wood' to try searching videos on www.live.com. The creatives were done by McCann Bangalore, while the media duties were handled by Lodestar Universal.Other media exploited for this campaign includes extensive online marketing on www.live.com and advertising on cybercafé monitors in five cities.

No comments: