Windows OneCare accolades

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Microsoft’s anti-virus software OneCare was entering a marketplace already populated by “category-killer” brands. In order to establish itself as a viable alternative against such fierce competition, OneCare needed to demonstrate its excellence and reliability from moment one.

Rather than use search engine optimization to highlight OneCare ads and drive traffic to OneCare’s web site, the Microsoft team decided to use that media placement to drive eyeballs to positive unbiased reviews of the product. Through a first-of-its-kind initiative with Google, OneCare linked as many pertinent key search terms as possible to direct links of favorable independent editorial content on the product, effectively guiding conversation and early buzz about the software at the consumer research stage.  Favourable press was identified in a series of national and trade publications and these were linked through via the Google search scheme. Ten separate Google campaigns were designed for each search term, each linking the user to a separate independent editorial page with positive commentary on the product. So the word “OneCare” would not only provide access to Microsoft.com, but also connected the user to a feature about the software in PC World. The team’s approach blocked competitors from top search engine results on the select keywords.

As a result, Microsoft received over 12 million “ad” impressions, leading 66,347 clicks to positive articles on Windows Live OneCare for a total cost of $4.27 per positive editorial view.

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