Microsoft Advertising To Deepen Global Relationships

CANNES, France – June 26, 2009 - Microsoft Advertising today announces the appointment of two new Vice Presidents who will reinforce and grow the company’s strategic relationships with global clients and agencies. The new functions have been created to deepen the level of understanding, adoption and utilisation of digital channels as marketing communities adapt in the face of unprecedented change.

Gregg Albright becomes Vice President Global Accounts and will be focused on using the company’s extensive experience, global network and technology infrastructure to help the CMO function thrive and overcome key challenges around utilisation, profitability and effectiveness. Gregg’s brief is to work closely with advertisers to unlock the potential benefits that scale and reach can deliver. His team will focus on the consumer goods, automotive, consumer electronics, OEM manufacturers, financial services and entertainment sectors.

Marc Bresseel moves to the newly created role of Vice President, Global Agencies. In his new position, Marc will be responsible for the development of Microsoft’s strategic relationships with key global media agencies including: Aegis, Havas, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP. His focus is to help agencies to grow their digital competencies and further embrace the real competitive advantage that this can deliver for their clients and their business.

Whilst separate, the two teams will collaborate to ensure that the needs of both audiences are front of mind further strengthening Microsoft’s position as an embedded partner to the marketing community. The team structures will be announced shortly.

Commenting on the new focus, Darren Huston, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corp’s Consumer and Online group, said: “Our clients – whether agency or advertiser -- face one all-too-familiar need: to reach, engage and motivate their audience. Our clients tell us that they see digital, and Microsoft, as critical to helping them more cost efficiently and effectively meet this need on a local, regional, and global basis with even closer collaboration.”

Commenting on his appointment, Marc Bresseel said: “Microsoft Advertising has a wealth of experience in developing technology that enables agencies to create ground-breaking campaigns and then track and refine them through intelligent evaluation tools. The decision to create this new role affirms our commitment to building on existing relationships with the leading influencers in the advertising industry, and converting them into durable, long-term partnerships.”

Gregg Albright added: “We know that it is a challenging time to be a marketer. Not only are and audiences more fragmented and media more complex, the office of the CMO faces a move towards previously unseen levels of budget scrutiny. We have seen how this complexity can be turned into a strategic opportunity given the right tools, operational efficiency and scale. We’re looking forward to working to unlock this potential with our advertising clients.”

About Gregg Albright
Gregg joined Microsoft in 1996 as the first MSN sales executive. Prior to that role he was head of sales for a US broadcaster. He moves to his new role from General Manager, Microsoft Advertising, Multinational and Global Accounts, Microsoft Corporation. During his tenure with the company, he has made an impact on almost every facet of Microsoft’s online advertising business - pioneering a number of the innovative client programmes, including Rich Media ad solutions which are a mainstay of Microsoft Advertising today.

About Marc Bresseel
Marc has a long history with Microsoft, most recently holding the position of General Manager, EMEA Sales for Microsoft Advertising, during which time he successfully drove the business across Europe, Middle East and Africa to outperform market growth by almost double year on year. Following the acquisitions of Massive, ScreenTonic and aQuantive, he played a key role in integrating the Atlas platform, in-game and mobile into the company’s advertising product portfolio.

About Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising provides advertisers and publishers with media, tools and services to help drive deep and profitable engagement with their audiences. This includes a media network that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers around the world; global technology platforms and tools that enable easy planning and management of campaigns and content; and services that help untangle the complexities of digital media to get more value from marketing and content investments. Microsoft Advertising makes buying and selling media simple, smart and cost-effective across media and devices in the Microsoft network of properties and beyond. More information is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Microsoft Advertising Press Contacts:

Alex Kingdon
Phone: +44 (0)7971 002936
E-mail: alex.kingdon@microsoft.com

Nikki Thompson
Phone: +44 (0)207 067 0538
E-mail: nthompson@webershandwick.com

Joe Walton
Phone: +44 (0)207 067 0511
E-mail: jwalton@webershandwick.com