back to article Microsoft backs 'Bing' with big ad push

Microsoft is reportedly spending $80m to $100m on a new ad campaign for its search engine, which is set to launch next month under the moniker “Bing.” According to Advertising Age, the software giant has thrown a heap of cash at print, web, TV and outdoor ads in a bid to get people to “Bing it” rather than “Google it” for …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Presumably the MS market research didn't get round

    to finding out that for a whole generation now the word Bing is the surname of a character in a popular US sitcom, rather than just some stupid nonsense word

  2. GrahamT
    Happy

    Bing=shell, not Windows

    As Bing sang all those years ago:

    We’re going well, we’re going Shell,

    We’re going well on Shell, Shell, Shell,

    Keep going well, keep going Shell,

    You can be sure of Shell!

  3. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    So.

    What do Microsoft have in common with a dyslexic rap artist?

    They both spent $100 million on Bing.

    (FX: Large hook from stage left)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bing?

    As in Bing Crosby, or Chandler Bing?

    Sounds like the new Zune to me. MS have done it again!

  5. Frank

    Easier way to advertise?

    Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to buy Adword placings on Google; such as 'search', 'web search', 'search engine', etc? The target market is already there and looking.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bling?

    or Bling, the gangsta search engine….

    Bing!!!, the sound of the Microshit cash register

    Or is it an acronym like FUBAR or SNAFU,

    hang on, is it “Ballmer, It’s Not Google”

    Bing it,

    Bin-it, would be better

    Fuck it, is my attitude

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    bing?!

    I can guarantee that will fail, the word "bing" sounds about as good as "squirt", and we know where that got the zune (I just had to google this, I couldn't remember the name of their doomed music player!).

    Paris, cos i could imagine her on TV telling me to "Just Bing it!"

  8. George
    Thumb Down

    Gimmick!

    MSN seach hasn't delivered accurate enough results for years so unless Bing does, it will be a Wolfram Aplha lame duck.

    No amount of marketing can cover up bad search results.

    For example our company comes below about 5 council reports on us (favourable thank god!), how does that happen? On Google, official website is first.

  9. Ad Fundum

    Here's my comment

    What a shit name.

    Like Joey once (almost) said in 'Friends': "It was like Bing - whoa, short shelf life!"

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bing.

    In Kent, it is a fizzy drink.

    http://www.silverspring.co.uk/pages/products/prod_det.aspx?tpc=AF&fmc=AO&fnc=AX

    As for the search engine - give them a few months and they'll wish it (like all their bad marketing ideas) had died on the golf course.

  11. IGnatius T Foobar
    Thumb Down

    Bing! It sucks!

    Once again, it's yet another lame Microsoft attempt at search. It still sucks.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I predict a fail

    This will fail, they will sell all the pay per click stuff and everything and copy google as best they can and probably set all default IE homepages to be bing.com or whatever, but it will still fail, just like the zune.

  13. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    O come on guys

    Why didn't you just call it Zune and be done with it.

    I mean I totally wouldn't feel like an idiot talking about "Zuning it".

  14. Robert Ramsay
    Coat

    Bing?

    "Don't dig that kind of crooning, chum"

  15. Lee Dowling Silver badge

    Bing

    Totally off-topic, I know, but Bing is a silly name, as Chandler from Friends will no doubt agree. However, I have taken to calling my Oyster card a "Doinker" and religiously "doink" in and out each day, so maybe if it catches on, it'll work.

    But at the end of the day, anything from MS isn't going to be overly popular with the tech crowd, who will just keep telling people to Google stuff. And, yes, Windows "Live" is such a horrible, horrible brand. I don't normally advocate "brand renewal" but in this case, everything I touch that wants to mention Windows Live turns me off.

  16. Cian

    verbing weirds language

    "... in a bid to get people to “Bing it” rather than “Google it” for searches online."

    Oohh.. Google don't like it when you say that, they prefer if you "do a Google(tm) search". They don't want to be the next hoover or xerox.

  17. GrahamT
    Boffin

    @AC

    "...for a whole generation now the word Bing is the surname of a character in a popular US sitcom"

    And for several generations it is the first name of an American singer of the 40's, 50's and 60's. (where do you think the writers of Friends got the name from?)

    The person that wrote the sub-head "It'll search its best for you, a rum pum pum pum" obviously knew this, though his duet with Bowie was done when Bing no longer knew who he was, let alone Bowie.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    well

    Maybe they can advertise version 2.0 as "A Badda Bing"?

  19. Ian Halstead
    Thumb Down

    Ah - I think I get it

    They've had 'Bob'.

    Now 'Bing'

    'Dorothy' must be next.

    It's another in the 'Road to............' series. This time it's the Road to Nowhere.

    (You have to be of a certain age)

  20. Geoff Mackenzie

    Wonderful

    Maybe I'm just immature, but "bing it" sounds like it means something else to me.

  21. Toastan Buttar

    Shale Bings A Go Go

    To anyone in East Central Scotland, I'm sure this is what the word "Bing" brings to mind:

    http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/details/356796/

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Names

    "Totally off-topic, I know, but Bing is a silly name, as Chandler from Friends will no doubt agree. However, I have taken to calling my Oyster card a "Doinker" and religiously "doink" in and out each day, so maybe if it catches on, it'll work."

    Annoyingly, Barclays have trademarked 'Hole in the Wall'. I like Charlie Brooker's idea of renaming them 'Money shitters'. If everyone starts calling them that, HITW will become obsolete and then they'll be stuck.

  23. Piers
    Happy

    http://www.bing.com/

    Currently shows a blank page, and view source also. Things can only go downhill from here...

  24. Andrew Fraser
    Coat

    It'll be as popular...

    As the friends character of the same name..

    Why not call it bork ? It'll reflect the status of the product much better.

    Bork it !

    Its completely borked !

    Mines the one with the chef's hat in the pocket... bork bork bork !

  25. Ad Fundum
    Joke

    @ Ponder Stebbins

    "Ballmer, It's Not Google" - classic!

  26. Alex Barwell
    Gates Horns

    Maybe

    Can someone in open source land come up with a rival and give it the equally fitting name of Bada...

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @Lee Dowling

    >However, I have taken to calling my Oyster card a "Doinker" and religiously "doink" in and out each day, so maybe if it catches on, it'll work.

    If you hear someone saying "Doink" very loudly on the way home tonight (Moorgate/KingsX today), that's your fault. Much better than "Oyster" (I mean, wtf is that supposed to signify? An irritating piece of grit surrounded by a slimy mudbathing sluglike creature? And you can't yell "Oyster" when "Doinking", it doesn't sound right)

    It is very close to the "Yoink" sound we get in Matt Groening cartoons when someone holds up something valuable and another character "Yoinks" it out of their hand/gripper/tentacle

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bing Definition

    Bing a heap or pile, particularly of metallic substances.

    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bing

    In this case a heap or pile of something else.

    Dung

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Wow...

    Again with people judging based on name alone... It hasn't even been released yet and eveyone is already bashing it.

    Also, lay off the name, seriously, I am still pissed that google stole the name of a mathematical constant, completly ruining it. (1 x 10^100)

    Its still the only alternitive to google's advertising money printer they call a search engine, which may get better results that everyone else.

    If I had to chose between two monopolies, I would chose the one that I know what they are selling and not what they are paid to sell.

  30. Charles Manning
    Linux

    Recursive name?

    Recursive names are all the rage in open source: "gnu is not unix" etc.

    "bing is not google"

    So this this MS embracing open source philosophy? I hope that's as close as they get. I don't want to be tongued by Ballmer.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    @ Bing Definition

    Actually, Dung sounds more catchy than Bing.

    "Dung it".

    ---------------

    Microsoft doesn't have a clue. How sad, it's like some middle aged

    suburban rapper who lives in it's mother's basement.

  32. Goat Jam
    Paris Hilton

    Google is the best!

    Just try doing a search for "client server database" and check out the top result.

    You can't click it because it has been removed, but the cache still has it!

    Paris, because apparantly she knows all about client server databases. Who woulda thunk it?

  33. Camilla Smythe

    Microsoft Disenfranchises Bong

    'Bing hands Satchel to Ballmer for cream cake with extra cream. Ballmer hands Bing cream cake with extra cream from Satchel.'

    When questioned Bong said...

    'Didn't tell me nuffink about it, great big lump. He's not exactly the brains on the team. I guess that's the Universe then.'

  34. Mark Dowling
    Thumb Down

    Bing?

    Is that something to do with a weenus?

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