Microsoft is launching a global ad campaign to highlight not just one but several of its products and how they interrelate. The hope is that the company can encourage consumers to buy more of its offerings during the holiday season, it says in its blog post.

The campaign is interesting from an industry perspective as it is the first time Microsoft is advertising multiple products alongside each other. For marketers, though, if it is a success - or even if does not lead to blow sales devices with Windows Phone or Xbox for Kinect — it is worth a look at Microsoft’s supporting ad technologies and products.

For a First, on the Gadget Show

The campaign launched in the U.K. this week on the Gadget Show. The TV advert showcased Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox for Kinect and Office within a real-life family scenario. Crispin Porter + Bogusky is leading the campaign, which also includes digital and search and in 35 countries including US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

AdCenter Versus AdWords

AdCenter, presumably, will play some role in the search campaign. AdCenter is often overshadowed by its counterpart at Google, AdWords, but marketers should give it a second look, writes PPC Without Pity.

That it because AdCenter reaches about 30% of U.S. search engine users and still delivers a lower cost per conversion.

"Many PPC managers (including myself) have observed that Microsoft AdCenter tends to drive a significantly lower cost per acquisition than Google AdWords, both before the search alliance and after the search alliance. You can get this because advertising with Microsoft is much less competitive than advertising on Google."

In addition, importing a Google account into AdCenter is easy and AdCenter has a lot of the same tools that AdWords does. "I'm not encouraging anyone to ditch Google by any stretch of the imagination. But if you want to pick up a couple extra conversions on the cheap, AdCenter is the way to go."