Bradford, the tech giant's first corporate VP of global sales and marketing and its chief revenue officer, is part of the team under chief executive Steve Ballmer helping to re-engineer Microsoft from a software provider to the world's leading online media company.
She has been charged with ensuring Microsoft gets a sizeable bite of the ballooning online ad pie for all its properties. Her remit extends from Live.com to Officelive.com, Microsoft.com, Xbox and Microsoft IPTV edition software platform and mobile content.
"The online ad business is a huge and growing opportunity, with worldwide revenues expected to reach US$31 billion in 2008, according to ZenithMedia," says Bradford. "In Asia, online advertising is growing at about 30 per cent in many markets, including Japan and Korea."
Thirty-one this year, Microsoft has had unquestionable triumphs in conquering the global software industry. But will its various properties measure up as media assets, offering space deemed premium by advertisers?
In search and online services, as well as consumer electronics, it's widely acknowledged that the company made a belated entry. As a result, competitors like Google, which has established itself as the search leader, as well as Yahoo, as it acquires sites such as Flickr, have raced ahead. To give its rivals a run for the search dollar, Microsoft
has upgraded MSN and Hotmail.
Assessing Microsoft's prospects, an analyst at Gartner, David Smith, has been reported saying: "They're up against some formidable competition and changes in the marketplace as a result of software as a service, Open Source and Web 2.0." Similarly, success has been mixed in consumer electronics, where Xbox has been a hit, but Microsoft trails smaller rival Apple in portable music players.
On the upside, Microsoft's Windows Live series, which allows developers to create applications that are hosted on the net by the company, is generating some heat. The initiative will allow Microsoft to take on rivals and offer free software that is supported by advertising.
Similarly, its Xbox platform is also making waves. "We can now deliver real-world timed and targeted ads into more than 75 million game sessions worldwide, providing monetary streams for game publishers and enhancing realism for players," notes Bradford.
She points to a partnership between Massive, a wholly-owned subsidiary, and Korean game developer Webzen as an indication that the company is well placed to tap Asia's gaming boom. The tie-up allows Massive to serve ads inside two of Webzen's multiplayer online games, including one designed by the creators of Grand Theft Auto, that are due to launch from next year. "What Microsoft is attempting to do with online advertising is the same as any other media group with multiple platform opportunities," says a media executive. "It's appealing conceptually, but experience with the likes of AOL/Time Warner will say this will be very difficult to execute."
The biggest challenge will be in getting executives of the different properties to row in the same direction, a factor often blamed for derailing AOL/Time Warner's multi-platform ambition.
Microsoft appears to have anticipated the challenge. Last year, it refashioned what was once an unwieldy organisational structure of seven operating units into three divisions. Industry executives also point to Bradford's past stints, notably her lengthy spell at BusinessWeek prior to her joining Microsoft in 2001, saying it should make a difference. As BusinessWeek's North American adsales VP, Bradford tied the company's platforms to develop a major sales effort that integrated print, online, TV, conferences and partner programmes.
Bradford, who spearheaded an industry-wide effort to establish standardised measurement of online viewership at MSN, knows that if she is to transform Microsoft into the world's leading online media provider, she will need to strengthen its credibility with advertisers.
She says a key part of her new role will be to "take the friction out of the buying and selling process" as much as it is to generate awareness of Microsoft properties. To this end, Microsoft has been seriously wooing the creative community at Cannes and beyond.
It is at Cannes that the scale of Microsoft's investment to bring the creative community on board can be truly appreciated. Along with picking up the tab to fly more than 300 delegates from around the world, Microsoft also sponsors the Cyber competition and organises workshops and seminars to establish what Bradford dubs its thought leadership in the area. Cannes was also where Bradford was heard raving about the prospects for in-game advertising.