Officially dubbed the “Bing Farmville Engagement”, this digital marketing campaign offered free Farmville Farm Cash to anyone who became a Facebook “fan” of Bing.

The aim was to raise the visibility of Microsoft’s new search engine. Microsoft recognised the increasing power of social gaming and was the first brand to integrate with Farmville. It wanted to grow its fan base and did so overnight by connecting with the target audience within the game itself.

The use of Facebook virtual currency was innovative offering and Bing gained over 425,000 Facebook fans in one day.

The campaign also proved to have staying power as 70% of the new fans used Bing within the next month and those users were “twice as likely to search with Bing than users who discovered Bing through other channels,” according to the campaign’s OMMA (the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising) nomination page, for which the campaign won an award.