I got pinged yesterday from some folks at microsoft asking if I would be willing to post their new live search ads and take feedback from the ShoeMoney readers.
I have not had time to watch them myself but I was told Danny Sullivan said they were the best search engines commercials he has seen in a long time. (honestly I don’t remember any search engine advertising for a longtime)
Here they are! Vote below!
Video: Live Search 1 – Plucky powered skates
Video: Live Search 2 – Meet Malcolm Dewsbury
Video: Live Search 3 – The gossip jockeys
Video: Live Search 4 – The hunt for saucy hotel snaps
Video: Live Search 5 – Fancy a picnic darling?
Video: Live Search 6 – A terrible secret!
Video: Live Search 7 – DJ Snizzle and his baby moma Ethel
n
n
Which New Microsoft Live Search Ad is the best?
- Comment Likes 
- Comment Dislikes
May 20, 2008 at 8:26 am
I voted for the first one, looks funny.
May 18, 2008 at 7:46 am
I am going to agree that they are all too long and inefective!
May 17, 2008 at 10:40 am
microsoft wants many things but they are giving less. when it is more you have to pay more.
May 16, 2008 at 12:11 pm
didn’t have the patients to watch them. I did watch the skate one though. Nice.
May 16, 2008 at 9:10 am
Microsoft will have to do a lot more then a few nice ads. Well done ad agency
May 15, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Now did you get payed per each time we viewed these videos or did they pay just for the post alone?
May 15, 2008 at 6:37 am
I like the Plucky Power stakes. They get my vote for sure!
May 14, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I like the Terrible Secrets!
May 14, 2008 at 11:12 am
Voted on Plucky Power Skates, nice ads .
May 14, 2008 at 10:41 am
DJ Snizzle of course!!!!
May 14, 2008 at 3:55 am
boring….. . ..im ad blind, it burns oh it the pain.
May 13, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Keep the video production people but fire the writers.
May 13, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I like the jockey one the best …
May 13, 2008 at 9:07 pm
OK–that is better, and good to know.
if I were at a conference, and someone presented one of these as an intro to their presentation, I would be amused ..it would definitely appreciate the effort that MS put into grabbing my attention and i would REMEMBER the experience. Maybe overall they are still a bit too long, but I am impressed w/ the quirkiness and continuity of the productions.
Just don’t make me sit thru any of them twice.
Thanks for the info you added.
May 13, 2008 at 8:36 pm
They’re not meant to be ads as such but more a little selection of skits. Danny saw them at an event we had in London and thought they were funny. Us Brits think they’re quirky too…..just a bit of fun!
May 13, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Creativity -good, interesting, curious
Communication of message – very poor, too long. message diluted by video content. Narration voice – annoying
Potential effectiveness – minimal at best.
Overall – boring, inane
Can’t believe this came from a professional agency
May 13, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I don’t like retro commercials, sorry.
May 13, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Great productions, but definitely too long.
May 13, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I wonder who they are targetting with those ads? Certainly seems it is not the techie-type crowd that is reading Shoemoney.
I couldn’t watch them all, but the ones I did watch were pretty bad, won’t be voting for any of them as a favourite.
May 13, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Corny is right. They are pretty good though.
May 13, 2008 at 6:36 pm
THIS IS WHATS GOING TO BEAT GOOGLE. ALL I HAVE SAY IS OMG….
GO BACK TO DRAWING BOARD MSN PLEASE…
RD
May 13, 2008 at 6:18 pm
My vote was for number 6.
It grabbed my attention right away with a booger joke. (gets me every time) I loved the style of humor and I think its the only one that would actually not make me mad to find out I was watching a 2 min commercial.
If they want to make “videos” they either have to come up with MUCH better short stories, or compilations of stuff people want to see.
May 13, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Who is their target audience? Old British chaps? I love British humor, but these are just not that funny, and are mostly confusing.
May 13, 2008 at 5:13 pm
They all seem to be pretty lame, with the amount of resources that a big company like that has you would think they could come up with something better than these. But if I had to pick the best of the worst I would choose No. 7.
May 13, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I can’t believe they actually paid for those crap ads. This is what happens when a company gets so big that the original players don’t have a real hand in day to day business.
Hopefully Microsoft will read the feedback here and go back to the drawing board because going retro with long ads is not what the 21st century is about.
May 13, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I randomly tried to watch a few of these but none held my attention. Too long, too boring. They should go back to the drawing board
May 13, 2008 at 3:40 pm
The “plucky” 1st ad was nauseating….watched it until the man and his wife were cruising down a suburban street on HIS skates, and he consulted the live map in his big hat….did they actually pay some agency to come up with this crapola?
May 13, 2008 at 3:32 pm
watched 30secs then got borred.
May 13, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Where is the option for ‘None of the Above’ ?
Too long
May 13, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Oh I didn’t vote for any of them.
May 13, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I like the change from hotmail to live. I expected something HOT. I would have liked to see something fresh, new, crisp, something 2020ish. But then again I don’t advertise for a fortune 500 company. If you guys at Microsoft need help ask me. I would shoot you some ideas for free.
May 13, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Plucky Power Skates has my vote! Nice ads.
May 13, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Not sure if MS need to improve their SERPs or advertise more. If they want advice I would say they should improve their SERPs first.
May 13, 2008 at 12:51 pm
No none option ?
Nice videos there
May 13, 2008 at 12:29 pm
The idea of using WWII era footage is pretty good, but they all need to be shorter and get to one punch line quickly and get out. 30 seconds max I think. None of them are effective as is.
May 13, 2008 at 12:05 pm
wow these are all terrible and all too long.
and that’s NOT an accordian, its a concertina. someone should have “live searched” before writing the script.
May 13, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Wow, you left out the option to vote for none. These ads are horrible. If MSN was trying to brand Live Search as a dated, nuts and bolts, POS, then they succeeded. I would avoid Live Search after seeing these ads.
May 13, 2008 at 11:46 am
All are too long, some too silly without being clever. Good concept, well produced, but need to be half as long or even shorter.
My fav is motorized skates, humorous dialog and damn cool skates.
May 13, 2008 at 11:44 am
I wonder if Danny Sullivan has Plucky powered skates. While they’re all pretty corny videos, I liked number seven “mail from DJ bubble wrap” DJ Snizzle. (For Shizzle)