AdvertisingAge this week revealed Microsofts latest plan to claim the share of search crown. The tech giant has employed advertising agency JWT to create and execute an integrated campaign across TV, Radio, print and online.

And the price tag for the campaign " a cool $100 Million!

Now youll be forgiven for thinking Microsoft are beating a dead horse given their somewhat bemusing search antics recently. The self confessed identity issues (the new search engine has been referred to as Kumo, Project Kiev and Live Search) dont instil confidence in their strategic direction.

So is spending $100 million to advertise a service thats going through an identity crisis wise. Apparently they think so, and theyre hoping a campaign around the rebuild rather than a direct comparison to Google will be the key to success.

From the AdvertisingAge article:

According to one person close the situation, the forthcoming campaign will be careful to not position Kumo as a competitor to Yahoo or Google and instead cast it as a reimagined search engine that ups the game by yielding fewer but more-focused results. The proposed strategy is probably a good " if not the only " way to go.

Microsoft have tried just about everything to gain search share, even paying people to search with their Live Search Cash Back offer last year!

So will the creative power of JWT and an oversized marketing budget be enough to bring Glory to search engine formerly known as MSN; or will it go down as another dramatic search failure for the Microsoft camp? Share your thoughts below

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