Microsoft Ad Campaign to Focus on Business Servers

Microsoft Corp. said it will begin a television and print advertising campaign today that highlights its software for business server computers, an area the company is counting on to fuel future growth. The campaign will cost $220 million, making it Microsoft’s largest in the U.S. The ads will emphasize the theme of “software for the agile business,” meaning the programs can help companies adapt quickly to changing conditions, said Mike Delman, Microsoft’s general manager for advertising and events. The ads are intended to change the perceptions of corporate software buyers who see Microsoft as only a maker of software for personal computers, Delman said. As PC sales slow, Microsoft is relying more on sales of software for running computer networks and Web sites, such as Windows 2000 products, as well as programs such as database and e-mail servers. About two-thirds of Microsoft’s sales come from PC software. The ads, designed by McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, use examples of two companies that have merged and an employee on a business trip to show that Microsoft software is reliable, mobile and can operate with other programs. Microsoft shares rose $5.50, or 10%, to $61 Friday on Nasdaq after the company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that met reduced expectations and reiterated its forecast for fiscal 2001.