Microsoft is one of the best-known brands in the world. Nevertheless, the company is always looking for new ways to broaden its reach.

Microsoft approached MSG because it wanted a fresh way to connect with senior IT managers and decision-makers. Specifically, the software giant wanted to communicate the benefits of a wide range of business solution products in a way that would be credible, memorable and cost-effective.

MSG team members considered a variety of approaches before presenting one they felt would best achieve the client's goals. They proposed the creation of web and print content created by a respected third party and sponsored by Microsoft.

Working with the award-winning media company M2 Universal Online, MSG developed Perspectives on Productivity, a six-part technology series written by IDC Canada, a leading provider of market intelligence, advisory services and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.

Each week for six weeks, IDC experts submitted half-page articles on topics ranging from infrastructure security to corporate compliance that ran in the Report on Business section of The Globe next to a half-page Microsoft ad. The content was then repurposed for a special Perspectives on Productivity microsite housed within globeandmail.com, where visitors also found a podcast by each article's author, a headline feed from globetechnology.com and regularly updated interactive polls. The microsite, in turn, linked to other Microsoft.ca web hubs, driving traffic to areas promoting those products the client wanted to showcase.

In addition to promoting the microsite using print ads in Report on Business, The Globe delivered 12,000,000 impressions of traffic-driving banner ads on globeandmail.com to ensure that the on-line version of Perspectives on Productivity got the audience it deserved. When the results were tabulated, all parties agreed that the creation of this custom microsite with its enhanced content was far more effective than simply repurposing the print content alone would have been. As just one example of the metrics collected, we tracked 17,870 interactions with the podcasts alone--far greater than industry norms would predict.