marketing

Microsoft has kicked off a festive campaign for its Bing search engine. With Valentine's Day soon approaching, the male populous will ascend on these mighty portals of vast searchfulness for ideas on how to either woo a desired female, or make their way out of the dog house. Taking advantage of the popular celebration of love, the company is asking "what do you consider the most important quality in a partner?"

Microsoft has dedicated a section of the Windows Phone website for The Hobbit marketing. The webpage sports a cinematic advertisement for the film shows a customised home screen with "Home Sweet Shire" as well as the weather report for Middle-earth. Bilbo was obviously out on his adventure with his photos backed up on SkyDrive and Frodo pestering him with SMS messages and calls.

Microsoft is reportedly entering into a marketing agreement to promote Windows Phone 8 with the new Warner Bros movie, The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey.

Warner Bros has given the green light for Wunderman to kick off a campaign in the UK, US, France and Germany using a combination of digital press and outdoor activities.

Marketing, it's always been hit or miss with Windows Phone over the past two years with not any in particular sticking. Things might be a little different this time around with Microsoft picking up a couple of big celebrities to pimp the platform. 

Verizon is starting pre-orders for the Nokia Lumia 822, the carrier exclusive version of the Lumia 820, and it seems the US network is gearing up for a Windows Phone push in the states. Photos have been published to Twitter of what appears to be a Live Tiles promotion set up for the platform.

New look and new options

For those of you who are looking to promote your Windows Phone app on the web, you’ll want to go grab these new virtual badges from Microsoft.

The new design comes in 3 resolutions (125 x 40; 208 x 67; and 376 x 120), two colors (blue and black) and reflect the more Modern UI look that we’re accustomed to with Windows Phone including the new Store logo. In addition, Microsoft explains how to do the all important region-neutral deep link for the Store for your app. That’s the method we use here at Windows Phone Central so that the link will redirect you to your localized market.

More information can be found on the Windows Phone Developer blog.