Goodbye MDAS, Hello Engagement Mapping

At the Microsoft bashola I went to in Paris last year, the company laid out their mega-kit for the world of advertising to see.  And very impressive it was too.  However, I wondered at the time how many of the marketeers in the room *got it*, as the techno-talk levels were set to max throughout the event.  For instance, the system was referred to by the terrifying moniker of MDAS (Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions) and the presentations were about rewiring telephone exchanges and silos of digital cool-tools.  At the time, I wondered if Microsoft were guilty of the classic technology marketing mistake aka Features Not Uses.  Well, it looks like someone else shared this view. Today, Microsoft is rolling out something that was mentioned briefly at the event by Brian McAndrews - previously Mr aQuantive and now Head of Yahoo Microsoft's Advertising Grand Fromage.  Yes forget MDAS and welcome to Engagement Mapping.  These two words are very close to the hearts of Big Brands/Agencies and therefore much more likely to unlock some serious TV cash than any shiny tech talk.  Especially when used one after the other as a snappy Phrase™.  But what is it I hear you cry?  Good question.  In short, Microsoft have set some big brains to work and come up with a set of algorithms which assign different degrees of affect to different aspects of online marketing campaigns.  This is interesting for three reasons.  Firstly, it backs up Ballmer's vision of the world where all marketing is digital and all digital is marketing. Secondly,  it (theoretically at least) answers the most famous question in advertising:  "I know that half my advertising works, I just don’t know which half."  And finally (and most sweetly) it suggests that the only reason click-throughs from Search are so high is that branding campaigns have taken people to the point that they are searching at all.  So, it's those branding campaigns where the real action is.  That means Engagement Mapping not only gives Ballmer some metrics for his vision, it also speaks to advertisers most long-held fears AND is a stick to beat Google.  Yahoo!   Of course, it's all just a tiny step in the world of mega-media convergence and as Scott Karp points out Engagement Mapping is just a black box full of technological hocus-pocus.  But hey, so was the BARB/Neilsen Ratings system and that worked for fifty years!  (Meanwhile, Yahoo launches its own Black Box here and the JICMIS - I know - story continues here.)