Microsoft Advertising has announced the launch of its creative contest, The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards (MSAs), which invites advertisers from 30 countries around the world, to present their campaign idea for a brand or non-profit project of their choice, that you use Microsoft Advertising platforms to tell your story.

Advertisers must develop a hypothetical digital media plan and a creative idea that represents a key challenge for their business in 2012 or 2013. Unlike other competitions that are common in this industry, in this case, jobs that have been performed. Advertisers around the world are challenged to tell their brand story using technology and Microsoft Advertising solutions such as MSN, mobile, Windows Live, Xbox or Messenger, among others, to solve the real challenges they face.

The contest is divided into two phases: a first one, of local character, whose winners will be announced on the 25th of April. And the second, in which a jury of illustrious names from the world of advertising from around the world will reveal, on June 1, the names of the two final winners. This jury will be chaired by David Sable, Global CEO at Y & R, who says: “At the heart of every great campaign there is a great brand story. The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards celebrate the perfect union of ideas with innovation. I am excited to chair these awards that show how digital innovation means much more than just innovative technology. ”

Those participants who will:

• Combine a strongly creative idea with your storytelling
• Innovatively use Microsoft Advertising assets within your media plan.
• Emphasize the ability to measure how the target of your brand or project could be reached and influenced.

In that sense, Juan Carlos Fernández, Director of the Advertising and Online Division of Microsoft Iberica, said: “The fragmented nature of the current media landscape can cause brands to lose track of what they are trying to communicate. to your audience. This contest, and its focus on the growing business of Microsoft Advertising, is about how to help brands stop their confusion and put storytelling back at the center of digital marketing. We are impatient to turn the great minds that are behind it into stars. ”

Microsoft Advertising has created a small video presented by Felicia Day, actress and creator of “The Guild”, a web series that helps brands to better understand the advertising opportunities available to them to create their proposals for the contest