The latest campaign under the new strategy tries to put a friendly face onMicrosoft, a company that has been labelled by a federal judge as a"predatory" monopolist.

"Microsoft is perceived as successful, effective and efficient, but notperceived as warm and approachable," says Mike Delman, the company's generalmanager. "We are trying to make the brand more approachable."

Three new television commercials start airing on Monday. The spots, createdby Microsoft agency McCann-Erickson Worldwide, a unit of Interpublic Group,depict the company's technology as a positive force in society.

In one commercial, a mischievous son ignores his mother's warnings and triesto tap into a Website he's not supposed to be looking at, only to be stoppedby safeguards installed on his computer. In another TV ad, a dyslexic girlin her bedroom uses a computer programme to help her learn how to read. Twoother commercials have already started airing.

Microsoft has ventured into branding before -- most memorably with theslogan, "Where do you want to go today?" But nearly all of those adsfeatured specific products, Delman says. The fact the campaign is on the airalso underscores Microsoft's new emphasis on television advertising.

Previously, it focussed more on print campaigns, which can communicatetechnical details of software programmes.

"We didn't point to good things about the company. People didn't know thatit was important to tell stories," Delman concedes. "The fact we haven'tdone so earlier shows a little bit of naivete."

It's one of a number of mea culpas Delman has to offer on Microsoft'sbehalf. For years, Microsoft had splintered responsibility for advertisingalong its many different product lines, creating more than 75 different adbudgets, ranging from half a million to $100 million, and numerous smallfiefs all battling fiercely to achieve their sales targets.

With so many managers directing so many different campaigns, Delman says theadvertising messages grew increasingly complicated. One magazine might haveseveral Microsoft ads that each looked different from the others.

With so many managers sticking their hands in the creative pot, executivessay the resulting Microsoft ads have often been less than inspiring. "Theads have taken a second seat to products," says Allen Adamson, managingdirector at New York-based Landor Associates. "They haven't gotten theirfair share of advertising punch because their efforts were split up among anumber of different messages."

Now, Microsoft is consolidating with one internal group most of theresponsibilities for its ads. The company awarded almost all of itsestimated $350 million account to McCann-Erickson last year. The resultingnew campaign reflects Microsoft's realisation how critical image, and imageadvertising, are in the booming tech sector.

For years, technology companies had viewed advertising as a narrow, tacticaldevice: Advertise the features of your product in computer magazines topersuade technology managers to buy it. But as technology began to dominatethe headlines and the stock market, several companies, notably IBM Corp. andCisco Systems Inc., began to invest heavily in glamorous TV commercials tocement perceptions of them as leaders of the future.

"Technology is now mainstream. We're not marketing to the few but to themases," Delman says. "Unless we're clear about our business proposition inmarketing, we will fall behind in the space."

Consolidating so much of its advertising offers another potential benefitfor Microsoft: improving its sometimes rocky dealings with its ad agencies.The company has had a reputation within agency circles for being a difficultclient. It parted ways with Wieden & Kennedy, the Portland, Ore., agencythat created the "Where do you want to go today?" slogan, in the middle oflast year.

Microsoft and its new agency, McCann, also have had ups and downs. McCann,coping with changes brought on by its own restructuring, has lost a numberof people to rival agencies in what has become a fiercely competitive labourmarket for ad agencies.

Just this week, the Los Angeles office of Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Daysnatched away McCann's freshly hired chief creative officer, GaryTopolewski, who was en route from a Detroit agency to join McCann. McCann ishunting for his successor.

Under Microsoft's consolidated advertising structure, Delman says, McCannwill no longer have to field calls from 10 or more Microsoft executives aday. "This will help McCann attract and retain good employees," he says."Part of optimising marketing is having a good agency relationship."

The consolidation inside Microsoft doesn't include consumer campaigns suchas the ones for Microsoft's new X-Box, its new video-game console, or itsMSN Internet Service. Those accounts, however, also are handled by McCann,which is charged with creating a unified look for all Microsoft ads.

Despite the flogging Microsoft's image has taken during the anti-trusttrial, recent surveys say most consumers still have positive opinions aboutthe company.

But agency executives who have left McCann say the barrage of negativepublicity may have hurt the company's image with an important audience --technology managers, particularly those in Silicon Valley.

"The technical customer listened to the background noise and is wary of whatMicrosoft represents," one former McCann executive said.

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.

Inside Microsoft, responsibility for marketing initiatives is nowconsolidated under under Mich Mathews, the company's recently appointedvice-president of marketing. Mathews also will oversee public relations,events, consumer relationship marketing and the new Solutions MarketingGroup, which focuses on cross-product campaigns.

(The Wall Street Journal)