Microsoft Canada has placed its advertising and public relations assignments in review and hopes to finish the process by the end of November.
TBWA Chiat/Day of Toronto has had the ad business for the past five years, while the public relations portion has been with Hill & Knowlton for three years. Both are Toronto agencies.
The incumbents have been invited to take part.
The review is for Microsoft’s Canadian and local marketing efforts, for which media spending was $10.6 million last year, according to ACNielsen. The launch of the Windows 95 operating system accounted for $3.6 million of that total.
Laura Gernon, manager of corporate marketing for Microsoft, says it was time to take a fresh look at other agencies because the company’s business has changed a lot in the last five years.
‘We’re leveraging a lot more from the u.s. There’s some made-in-Canada creative, but we’re also adapting u.s. creative.
‘We’re also spending more now than five years ago but in different ways,’ says Gernon, adding traditional media still play a big role, but the company is also concentrating on its Web site.
The successful ad agency will be responsible for advertising specific to Canada and local media buying.
It will also work closely with Microsoft’s global agency, Wieden & Kennedy of Portland, Ore., which handles brand advertising and national media buying.
