Rivals Try New Tactics to Unseat Search King

NEW YORK When Microsoft released its much-awaited MSN Search to compete with category leader Google in early 2005, it did so with the kind of fanfare expected from its marketing machine: a wide-ranging TV, print, outdoor and online campaign, including Super Bowl spots, with an estimated budget of $150 million. Yet afterwards, Microsoft was left in a familiar position: distantly trailing Google, and even losing ground.

Two years later, Microsoft finally saw its first spike in monthly search share, going from 10 percent in May to 13 percent in June. Yet the surge did not come from glitzy advertising, but from a series of casual games, called the Live Search Club, that Microsoft developed internally to promote its rebranded search engine, Live Search. One game, called Chicktionary, is a word jumble that uses Live Search results as a hint feature.

The games highlight the nontraditional approaches Google competitors are trying to market their search engines in the face of Google's dominant brand position (which, incidentally, was established without much traditional advertising at all).

"What drives [brand] differentiation is being perceived as energetic or innovative, and being dynamic," said Russ Meyer, chief strategy officer at Landor Associates, a brand consulting firm. "If you take those two characteristics, they define Google."

The Live Search Club is one of several experimental efforts that introduce Live Search users (Microsoft puts the figure at 30 percent of Internet surfers) to features that the company believe are more innovative than anything found on Google. Last year, for instance, Omnicom Group's EVB and Interpublic's MRM Worldwide constructed a visual search engine, , featuring a seductive, sassy actress who would implore users to ask her questions. The site returns Live Search results.

The promo introduced people to Live Search, said Brad Goldberg, general manager of Live Search Business Group, while it also ignited blog buzz, some of it negative and some positive. In either case, it succeeded in getting more people to experience Live Search and got others to talk about it, something that hadn't been the case much in the past.

Yahoo has not chosen to specifically market its search engine, though its "Be a better..." campaign kicked off in May highlights its social search feature, Yahoo Answers. But fourth-place search engine Ask has been more aggressive, launching a campaign this spring from MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The push, which IAC CEO Barry Diller said would cost up to $100 million, began with billboards with mysterious references to an algorithm to ignite viral buzz. Subsequent TV work, such as one ad featuring a Broadway-like song about a search for "chicks with swords," further stoked online chatter. In the U.K., Ask also went the viral route to take on Google directly, using Fallon Worldwide-created unbranded wild postings and TV spots to suggest Google's dominance was, in effect, an information monopoly. The ads directed users to a Web site, where they could compare results from Google and other search engines, including Ask.

Goldberg would not rule out major media pushes for search, but Microsoft was at the moment keen on trying new approaches that use its vast resources to increase the frequency with which its current visitors use its search engine. One approach is to directly award customers with ringtones, T-shirts and even copies of the new Vista operating system. While several blogs decried the approach as a sign of desperation, Goldberg compared it to airline rewards programs, which have proven effective in the mostly undifferentiated category. He sees a similar opportunity to build brand loyalty.

Microsoft's outgoing chairman Bill Gates has long been intrigued by the idea of increasing search use through marketing programs that directly reward customers. Since he floated the idea in late 2005, Microsoft has run several promotions along these lines. In 2006, held out the promise of $1 million in prizes to lure searchers. More recently, Microsoft in January started Click4theCause, a search engine that makes donations to a refugee organization based on users' Live Search activity. In another, it offered a few large corporate customers discounts on Microsoft products based on employees' use of Live Search.

Both Microsoft and Ask have their work cut out for them, said Greg Sterling, a search industry analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence. Rarely has marketing done much to move the needle in the search market, since Google has established such a dominant brand and the other options don't appear that much different. "These search engines have been me-too search engines," he said. "They've all resembled Google in many ways."

"From a category standpoint it's very challenging," said Greg Ott, CMO at Ask," because the category is free and there's no switching cost. For most people, it's not a highly considered product choice."

Microsoft and Ask hope to get around this by focusing on how their search experience diverges from Google's. Ask, for instance, emphasizes that its results pages provide many types of media, not just links. The Live Search Club pushed game players into Live Search's image, mapping and other tools. "We're focused on exposing people to functionality outside of the core search box," Goldberg said.

The good news for Google's rivals, Meyer said, is that no one is on top forever. After all, Microsoft itself was the seemingly unassailable brand in the 1980s and 1990s.

"You don't get to be the 'it' brand forever," he said. "That's just human nature."

-- By Brian Morrissey

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