Bing Is The “Official” Engine Of Early Adopters…According To Bing

August 25, 2010 Author Adam Singer In Digital Marketing and PR

While at the SES conference in San Francisco last week, I noticed the above sign in the front of the session hall.  And I had to stop and snap a picture to share with you here – because I think this messaging is misguided.

I understand Bing is trying to target techies, geeks, early adopters & “super-nerds” (whatever they mean by that last one).  Except advertising isn’t the way to reach this crowd.  It never was.  The reason Google owns this audience is simple – Google deserves them.  They deserve them through a remarkable product, through a focus on experimenting, delivering a high quality experience, market innovation and creativity.  And then sharing those stories in a compelling, real way.  Not because they proclaimed themselves “the official” search engine of the audience.  Official?  According to who?  In this case, themselves.

Not to totally knock Microsoft, Bing as a search engine actually does deliver a good experience.  But their advertising to this audience (many of you reading this) seems to try to tell us what they want to be vs. what they actually are.  Maybe one day, but not yet.  Actually, from discussions with a few marketers at the conference, this messaging may be working against them.  To quote someone I had a discussion with, “it appears they have Google envy.”

Let’s not forget, Microsoft did unsuccessfully try to pay people to use their search engine.  I know MS is likely trying organic approaches such as social and PR as well as paid tactics like the above, but unfortunately the organic messages haven’t reached me in a way that resonates.  Their paid approaches, while reaching me, don’t seem to be aligned with persuading their market.  Organic propagation of the right messages is what they need if they want to sway the early adopters.

What do you think?