At an event on the Microsoft Campus, the Bing Ads team unveiled the latest addition to their advertising arsenal. Called Hero Ads, the platform delivers fullscreen advertisements related to searches that are performed from within Windows 8.1.
But these are not just regular ads. In addition to filling the entire screen, these are adverts that encourage interaction. In one of the example the Bing Ad team showed off, a search for “Land Rover” displayed a Range Rover advert complete with click through to find a dealer, book a test drive and find out more about model.
The idea of sponsored search results is nothing new – whether you use Bing, Google, or Yahoo, you will have encountered advertisements when performing online searches. But Hero Ads are quite a bold step. The idea is just being trialed for now, and it remains to be seen how it will be accepted by users and whether it will be rolled out on a larger scale.
Microsoft’s Stephen Sirich said “We will continue to solicit feedback from both users and marketers during this pilot and will use those learnings to create an experience that works best for advertisers and Windows 8.1 users.”
Hero Ads are being tested in the US with a number of key brands including Land Rover, Jaguar, Home Depot, Norwegian Cruise Line, Radio Shack, Hertz, Volkswagen and others.
What do you think? Is bring advertisements to the desktop too intrusive? Is this a step too far?
