Will Microsoft's "Bing-a-thon" Be Half-Baked?

I'm a Bing. You're a Google? Microsoft is reportedly spending as much as $100 million in an advertising blitz on Hulu in what the company is calling a "Bing-a-thon."

The ads will be used as a way to "bake into the shows," Eric Hadley, general manager of worldwide marketing for search and MSN at Microsoft, told The New York Times, attempting to wow watchers instead of eliciting yawns and saying "'that's it?' "

Hulu will start running Bing ads on Monday night, according to a report in The New York Times. The promos are reportedly similar to a telethon---minus Jerry Lewis---and are being called "Bing-a-thon."

The Bing-a-thon on Hulu has been crafted to look like a TV program and will star Jason Sudeikis, Olivia Munn and Fred Willard, the Times said.

Microsoft is counting on the ads to be more successful than the company's PC promos that currently air on TV.

"The key will be whether we deliver a product and connect with people emotionally in the advertising," Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president for the online services division of Microsoft told the paper. "You have to do something a little bit more surprising. It's a very tall marketing challenge and a very tall product challenge."

That emotional connection is supposed to come from the Bing ads that will be tied into TV shows streamed on Hulu.

In addition, Microsoft will air Bing ads on TV, but this time they will be integrated into shows rather than as standalone commercials.

NBC Universal, which is also a Hulu stakeholder, will feature Bing commercials on "The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon," and are also set to appear on MTV shows.

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