Bing breaks

Bing promotes itself as an intuitive 'decision engine,' and claims to understand the purpose of one's search, giving more relevant results faster and more easily.

In order to demonstrate how Bing works differently from Google, Microsoft needed to challenge people's default search behaviour, by showing that Bing understands what you search for. The brand chose to achieve this by illustrating how Bing could improve other forms of well-known media consumption.

The Bing Break

Consumer insight revealed that there is nothing more familiar than the traditional three-minute TV spot break. Microsoft set about creating a contextual experience within these spot breaks, which in turn introduced Bing to viewers. This was dubbed 'The Bing Break.'

The Bing Break would run a search query (as live) prior to every single advertisement during a Channel 4 ad break. The following ad would then be the answer to the preceding search query. For example, prior to insurance brand Confused.com's ad, Bing searched for "cheap car insurance." Bing's interstitial searches' created a unique link between one advertiser on TV and another.

Extra touches included getting the man behind the infamous voice of Channel 4's continuity announcements to introduce the breaks, search terms leading back to the relevant programme, and all searches actually working real time.
Results

Bing Breaks reached over 4 million viewers

Bing's searches were up 20% over the period, and awareness increased to 48% in April (from 28% pre campaign). At the same time Google's share of search dropped to its lowers point that fiscal period and Bing drew level with Yahoo, its closest search engine competitor.

Two more Bing Breaks ran during the FIFA Football World Cup in June - World Cup-themed, taking contextual evidence further.