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Microsoft Advertising signs 12-month strategic partnership with Entertainment One

The deal will see bespoke audience-targeted campaigns created for seven film launches across Microsoft Advertising platforms

7 April, 2014 – London: Microsoft Advertising today announces a year-long strategic advertising partnership with Entertainment One UK (eOne UK), one of the premiere names in independent film distribution.

The partnership will see eOne UK promoting new film launches with creative campaigns across MSN, Xbox, Skype and Windows 8 over the next 12 months – a partnership that began with Need For Speed and continues with large-scale activity around Xbox, an MSN and Windows 8 homepage takeover activity with the film Divergent, which launched in UK and Irish cinemas last weekend.

Working closely with ZenithOptimedia and eOne’s creative agencies from the very beginning of the design and build process, Microsoft Advertising’s in-house team will support the creation of premium content-led ads, specifically tailored to the Microsoft ecosystem. The deal emphasises Microsoft Advertising’s commitment to forming long-term strategic relationships with brand partners, challenging and building on consumer experiences through collaboration with the best media buying agencies, creative agencies, developers and publishers.

Microsoft’s Unique ID data

With audience targeting a key objective for the entertainment industry, eOne UK will use Microsoft’s Unique ID data to target specific audiences on relevant platforms for each film, as well as listening, learning and reacting to optimise each campaign.

The year-long partnership between Microsoft Advertising and eOne UK will see launch campaigns for a total of seven films, including forthcoming major titles The Raid 2, Pompeii 3D and Earth To Echo across different parts of the Microsoft ecosystem, which includes: Xbox, Skype and Windows 8 amongst others.

Owen Sagness, General Manager of Microsoft Advertising & Online UK, said: “Budgets across the entertainment industry are structured in a unique way – typically focused on individual launches as opposed to broader campaigns. We instead developed a long-term partnership, pulling all the individual budgets together, allowing us to create something much more significant for all of eOne’s films, not just a few of the big blockbusters.

“This partnership allows our in-house creative agency team to work closely with eOne, ZenithOptimedia and creative agencies to make these series of budgets work smarter, demonstrating the different possibilities available to them on our platforms.”

Kezia Williams, Head of Marketing at eOne UK said: “We’re excited by the possibilities of strategically partnering with Microsoft Advertising to promote Entertainment One’s upcoming titles across platforms. We look forward to continuing to develop innovative campaigns which bring to life the rich appeal