AdAge said the consumer-related assignment has drawn pitches from Microsoft’s current agency, McCann Erickson, which handles most of the Microsoft ad business. At least one other firm is believed to have made a pitch at the assignment too.

Microsoft intended for this ad review to stay quiet. But the company spent $912 million on advertising last year; a single spend of nearly a third of that had to attract attention.

As to what Microsoft plans to advertise, they aren’t saying. AdAge speculated it would be something to hit back at Apple’s popular “I’m a Mac” advertisements.

We’re going to guess it will be a push to promote the Vista operating system among consumers. Microsoft had to swallow some pride and allow OEMs to offer Vista’s precessor, Windows XP, to customers beyond the original cutoff date for the older OS.

Operating systems and the Office productivity suite represent Microsoft’s big revenue channels. If people continue to disdain Vista over stability issues, or worse, buy an Everex PC running Linux, Microsoft may plan the ad binge at keeping customers buying Windows machines.

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While I have some concerns about this story (see below), some of the reported stats are quite interesting:

• According to the report, China and South Korea lead the way in actively creating content and socialising online
• In China, 72.3 per cent of blog readers also post online
• More than 170 million people globally now post blogs
• Blogs are read regularly by some 340 million internet users worldwide
• The largest audience is the US, where 64 million people read blogs
• The number of people watching video clips online on sites such as YouTube has doubled from 31 per cent to 62 per cent in the last nine months
• Internet users are increasingly connecting to others across the globe with an estimated 194 million, or 36 per cent of the 16-54-year-old research sample, joining a social network

All that’s missing from this data is some means of validating it so as to provide a bit of credibility. I found it impossible to locate the research source for the report to confirm some simple facts such as when the research was conducted – try searching any of the McCann websites and see how far you get.

According to the Brand Republic report, “Universal McCann conducted research across 21 global markets.” I have no ideas what that means. Which markets? How many people were surveyed and in which countries? What’s the survey methodology?

If Brand Republic’s source was a press release, I couldn’t find it. If the report itself, ditto.

So if anyone has any details about this survey, I’d love to know.

I hope this doesn’t turn out to be like the Jupiter farce last year.

And by the way, McCann, it’s “social media such as blogging,” not “social media and blogging.” If you don’t agree, then please share your definitions of ’social media’ and ‘blogging.’

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An excellent way to reach people early is by developing thought-leading content. Yet most companies lack thought provoking, educational content; instead, they emphasize sales content. Sales content is most relevant in the later stages of the buying process.

Your content should be specifically designed to help support and pull your potential customer through each stage of their buying process. How? By helping people find the answers to their questions and being a resource to them, regardless of their timing to buy. Also see: Using Thought Leading Content as a Lead Generation Tool

Podcasts are a great way to share your thought leading content which is why I found this report by KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann very compelling. They just announced the results of a joint research study on the emerging role of new media, particularly podcasts, on B2B technology purchase decisions.

Key Findings from the Study Include:

• 41 percent of survey respondents claim they have listened to podcasts on more than one occasion, while 13 percent stated that they “frequently” download or listen to them.
• 32 percent of survey respondents stated their usage of podcasts has “Increased” or “Significantly Increased” in the last six months.
• 72 percent claimed that they have downloaded or listened to podcasts on technology topics on more than one occasion; 23 percent do so “frequently.”
• Nearly 60 percent of respondents said that information on business or technology topics, currently delivered as white papers or analyst reports, would be more interesting as podcasts.
• 55 percent of respondents would be more likely to consume white papers and analyst reports if they were delivered as podcasts.
• 57 percent of the frequent podcast users stated their biggest challenge with podcasts is the scarcity of interesting content.
• 65 percent responded that they listen to podcasts for both personal and business interests.

To learn more about the Emerging Media Series study visit, Podcast Study Report.

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Brian Carroll is the CEO of InTouch Inc. InTouch is a 50-person company focused on delivering effective lead generation solutions for “the complex sale.”

Brian authors the very interesting B2B Lead Generation Blog which focuses on B2B lead generation, sales leads, and marketing for the complex sale.