Case study / Bing platform growth × purpose partnership
Microsoft
Turning Bing adoption into support for classrooms
Integrated marketing and social activation leader
Executive summary
Connect Bing adoption with an education cause and make the product action itself part of the contribution.
Documented performance
Social activity became search behavior
Month-over-month growth documented in the June 2010 Bing Social Media Dashboard. The dashboard connected channel activity to Bing sessions and search queries, not vanity metrics alone.
The challenge
What needed
to change.
Bing needed more than awareness. It needed a reason for people to change an ingrained behavior and choose a different default search engine.
The insight
The unlock.
People did not need another corporate giving message. They needed a simple way to help. Choosing Bing as their default search engine could support classrooms through Our School Needs and DonorsChoose, with Oprah bringing national attention to the program.
What the team called her
The Executioner
It was affectionate, and it was earned. Kat became the operator people called when a visible, complicated campaign had to move from a strong idea to a real launch. Each delivery created confidence, and that confidence led to larger budgets, higher-stakes moments and broader responsibility.
Independent archive
The receipts
still exist.
Contemporary reporting and industry recognition preserve the campaign, its operating model and its measurable result.
Bing Search Blog
Our Commitment to Education
Microsoft's contemporaneous launch record documents Our School Needs, the national school competition, daily DonorsChoose participation and the interactive education map.Open original source ↗02 / September 27, 2010
Microsoft Official Blog
Why Microsoft cares about education
Microsoft documented more than $500,000 in school prizes and DonorsChoose support as part of the wider education commitment.$500K+ school supportOpen original source ↗03 / December 2010
DonorsChoose
A Big Thank You to Bing for a Great 2010
DonorsChoose recorded more than $1 million in classroom materials, over 30,000 people taking action through Bing Gives and the Oprah feature.$1M+ classroom materialsOpen original source ↗
The value loop
How the idea
compounds.
- 01Product behavior→
- 02Classroom support→
- 03National story→
- 04Adoption at scale→
- 05More impact
The outcome creates fuel for the next cycle.
The operating system
From idea
to execution.
- 01
Aligned Bing product adoption with a tangible education benefit
- 02
Connected Microsoft, Our School Needs, DonorsChoose and Oprah around mutual value
- 03
Integrated product, media, social, agency and cause workstreams
- 04
Extended the operating model into major culture moments and product driven search experiences
Supporting evidence
What the
work shows.
- Campaign materials document the purpose partnership and product adoption mechanism.
- Subsequent assignments included American Idol and campaign work surrounding major entertainment and cultural moments.
- The work established a repeatable pattern: connect a product behavior to culture, contribution and measurable adoption.