Bing Fires Two Marketing Execs Over Vendor Issues

Mar 19, 2012 at 5:00pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Microsoft has seemingly spared no expense on pushing its Bing search engine at star-studded entertainment events, such as the recent Sundance film festival. But those expenses may be key to news today that two Bing executives have been fired for “mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement,” according to Microsoft.

Ad Age appears to have broken the news of the dismissals. It has a short story with the Microsoft statement now being given to several outlets. Microsoft sent us the same:

We can confirm that as the result of an investigation, Eric Hadley and Sean Carver’s employment with Microsoft has been terminated for violation of company policies related to mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement.

Microsoft didn’t respond to who would be taking over, but GeekWire reports that Mike Nichols, a Microsoft general manager, will assume additional duties in the interim.

Hadley was general manager of worldwide marketing for Bing, while Carver was Bing’s advertising director, Ad Age says — though I also see references to Carver as director of brand entertainment.

Age Age ran a short profile of Hadley last October, which summarized:

He’s the one at Microsoft orchestrating splashy sponsorships of events such as Jay-Z’s book launch party and Lebron James’ “The Decision.” And he’s the one signing off on more low-key collaborations, such as one with TV host Maria Menounos, and video spots in New York cabs starring local personalities. The common thread? An attempt to massage Bing deeper into pop-culture consciousness, while staying grounded in a deep appreciation for analytics.

You can view both being briefly interviewed by Comedy Central’s Olivia Munn at Sundance 2010 in this video:

Below, Carver moderates a panel at Sundance earlier this year, which involved snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who suffered a major brain injury in 2009. Pearce was featured in Bing promotional videos that kicked off its new “Bing Is For Doing” campaign this year:

Shown with Pearce is Dr. Holly Ledyard of the University of Utah Medical Center (left) and X Games host Sal Masekela (right). Picture from Sarah Engel of Elegant Disruption.

I’ve always found it remarkable how much Bing appears to have been spending on these type of celebrity events. It’s hard to tell if they work versus other things Bing has done, such as product placements (Colbert Report and Gossip Girl to name only some) or straight advertising that the search engine runs.

The articles below explains more about these, and how Bing has gained market share. But it has done that at the expense of its supposed-partner Yahoo, not by pulling share away from Google.

Postscript: High-Profile Firings Could Temper Bing Ad Strategy from adAge reports this news can have an impact on Bing’s ad strategy.

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About The Author: Danny Sullivan is a Founding Editor of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also serves as Chief Content Officer for Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He has a personal blog called Daggle (and keeps his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan

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http://www.facebook.com/Aussiewebmaster Frank Watson

too many trips to strip clubs? those names on cc bills should not fool a search engine
RepeatedMeme

Those guys were well-known as being complete wastes of time. That it rose to the level of fireable offense is not a surprise.
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