Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Beware Google: Bing Is Going to Suck Your Blood, Um, Market Share: The New Commercial

bela-lugosi--dracula

Here is a funny but decidedly creepy new commercial from Microsoft (MSFT), in its ongoing marketing campaign to push its Bing search service.

In the commercial, below, titled “Vampire Decision Engine,” the software giant taps into vampire mania, playing into Halloween and the next chapter in the “Twilight” movie series, “New Moon,” set to debut in November.

In it, an Edward Cullen type, aided by a comely young woman, is looking for a place to “eat.”

According to Bing’s blog, it’s one of a new series of television spots in its $100 million marketing campaign.

The creative is different from earlier commercials, which featured search-overloaded people spouting keywords.

“Our latest Bing advertisement is the first in a series of new commercials where we highlight specific ways Bing can help simplify your life and help you make decisions faster,” said Bing in its blog.

You can see more video on Bing’s YouTube channel, owned by, yep, Google (GOOG)!


comments so far. Add yours.

  • Heather White-Laird

    I’ve been using Bing regularly, and although it’s not perfect, it definitely beats Google on certain results, especially maps and images.
    From my perspective, this campaign seems quite silly and irrelevant. Aren’t they just pandering to the current vampire trend? They should take a page out of Apple’s playbook and stick to highlighting the core brand attributes, and not layer passing vagaries of teen passion onto the product.

  • http://kara.allthingsd.com Kara Swisher

    H:

    I agree. Pretty goo product–ads less so.

  • http://www.firstpagegoogleresults.com/ search engine for video

    i also agree with you

  • http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/heatshrink.php Heat Shrink

    Much time has passed since Bing promised a lot, nothing credible on the ground yet.

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I break down a product the same way I break down a character I’m going to play. I try to get inside the mind of that person — the user, the consumer — and figure out why they’re doing something and what they want from it.

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