Is Microsoft Abandoning Search Advertising For TV?

In the fallout of the recent Google Yahoo! advertising deal, Microsoft has been left pondering whether it will ever make a dent in Google's ever growing search advertising market share.

A newly announced deal with TV advertising platform, Navic Networks, suggests that in the short term, Microsoft is focusing on advertising channels outside of the search landscape it has pursued for so long.

Navic Networks works with leading Cable TV companies to provide targeted advertising via their Admira ad network. Navic works with the likes of Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Charter, providing advertising solutions aimed at specific viewer groups with capabilities to click through to more in depth content.

"Television media represents the largest percentage of advertisers and
agencies' media budget today," said Brian McAndrews, senior vice
president of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group via the acquisition press release. "Together, Navic and Microsoft will deliver addressable television
advertising solutions to help our partners better manage media spend by
increasing advertiser reach and ROI, and maximizing publisher yield on
television advertising."

While the internet and TV are more interlinked than ever before, Microsoft appears more focused on the traditional audiences offered through cable TV with the Navic deal.

Search engines entering the TV advertising market isn't a revolution, as Google dabbled with TV some 2 years ago - with the beta tag being removed from Google TV this year. But the search giant is yet to really leverage its innovative cross medium advertising platform.

Perhaps Google's failure (to date) was due to the fact their internet advertisers are hesitant to transition budget to TV - a medium which has offered less accountability and lets face it - much higher entry costs.

There's no doubt that Microsoft will see this as a valuable extension of their adCenter platform, but initially, their target audience for the Navic based offering will be companies more familiar with TV advertising - but seeking greater tracking and targeting.

and perhaps then convince TV advertisers to use adCenter for the search advertising...probably not