The goal was to move perception up for Microsoft and down for Google (+/- 3 points) while encouraging millions of visitors to dig deeper within the website. We created an easily identifiable term that captures the feeling a user might get after learning they’ve been deceived by Google: “Scroogled,” a quick reference across mediums that identified ways in which Google is deceptive. U.S. advertising norms allowed for us to be aggressive in our approach to the problem, so we created a buzzword that quickly explained the issue to the user—“screwed by Google!”

After visiting Scroogled.com, the likelihood of people to recommend Google went down and their likelihood to recommend Bing went up several points beyond our goals. The term “Scroogled” became part of the cultural lexicon with references on NPR and social media. The campaign website was one of Microsoft’s most successful ever: 900K+ video plays; 250K+ petition signatures; and there have been thousands of press mentions. However, the numbers don’t tell the larger story. This campaign brought the sensitive subject of Internet privacy to the forefront prior to the bombshell NSA/Snowden scandal. It also energized compete advertising within the category.