Betting on the whole being bigger than the sum of the parts is probably wise. Microsoft is far behind Google and Yahoo in the search stakes, and Google's recent acquisition of YouTube made the company look exposed in the popular world of shared video.
Lump all of its media elements together, however, and, according to ComScore, Microsoft reaches over half a billion people every day — more than any of its competitors.
A joined-up platform may also help woo larger advertisers, consumer goods companies in particular. Critics, however, claim that Yahoo and others already offer advertisers a variety of services, and are perfectly capable of delivering them all in one go. They also claim Microsoft is simply repackaging its products to sell those it finds harder to shift.
"We're not about selling lower value inventory," insists Eric Hadley, MDAS' general manager.
"The traditional media world is completely different. TV spots are commodity units and the traditional cross-media model doesn't work. Microsoft and its advertisers are often moving into new territories and learning together, so some of our unproven products we may sell for less."
Hadley points out that while traditional media cross-platform deals failed to deliver genuinely integrated campaigns, Microsoft "has the technology to bring it all together... MDAS is about finding out what marketers want, and using Microsoft technology to engage with their audience. Everything's available off-the-shelf,"
Asia, in particular, is a region where Microsoft really needs its new brand to work. The company claims to be a top three player across the region, although in China, MSN does not make the top five in a market dominated by local portals.
Then there's the measurability conundrum. Some products will be trickier to measure than others, in-game advertising being one. So ROI for a cross-media campaign may be difficult to determine.
And what about that name? Couldn't they have thought of something snappier? "We tested the name extensively," says Hadley. "'Symphony' was suggested. So was 'the network', but it was considered too old-fashioned. We wanted something that was clear and would last."
