Type of site Search engine Website www.msdewey.com Registration No | Owner Microsoft Commercial No | |
Created by McCann-Erickson San Francisco, Sausage Films and EVB | ||
Ms. Dewey was a viral marketing campaign started by Microsoft in October 2006. It also refers to the character of the same name, who is the campaign's main subject. The Ms. Dewey website was an Adobe Flash-based experimental interface for Live Search. The interface features a modern-looking cityscape as a backdrop with the character on the left side, while the search results appear on the right. The cityscape backdrop changed depending on the time of day.
Developed by advertising agency McCann-Erickson and digital content marketing firm EVB San Francisco, Ms. Dewey appeared to be an interactive search assistant who audibly commented on searched keywords in her own style and made random actions when idle, including taking props from behind her desk. The responses actually consisted of about 600 video clips recorded over a period of three days.
Microsoft did not overtly market the website, and appeared to be relying on media coverage to draw users in. Janina Gavankar played the role of the Ms. Dewey character.
In January 2009 the website became inactive.