Lead, Ad Platforms and Strategy | Microsoft Advertising Toronto | Age: 27

One of Microsoft’s most important internal recognition programs is the Circle of Excellence. Of the company’s 90,000 employees, only 200 receive this award every year to recognize their performance.

Mike O’Sullivan from Microsoft Advertising received the honour in July for helping the fledgling Toronto ad operation with a revenue push and a global first.

O’Sullivan, 27, whose title is lead, ad platforms and strategy, works on a team of experts that explain Microsoft’s nebulous ad platforms to advertisers. It requires a huge amount of technical know-how, understanding of client needs, and the ability to explain complex concepts and programs in simple terms. He excels on all counts.

“He’s a good communicator,” says Jason Dailey, O’Sullivan’s team manager. Microsoft’s products can get “pretty complicated and nuanced. The ability to translate what it means for clients, making it easy to understand, is something he excels at.”

Given Microsoft’s search and digital cross-platform services, targeting is central to its offering. The company projected to have 30 behavioural targeting segments this year, but after O’Sullivan met with 25 agencies in 20 days to better understand their needs, he helped create more than 50 segments, making a more customizable,and therefore attractive offering to advertisers.

He also played a role in creating the “re-messaging” service, which finds online consumers who not only fit an advertiser’s target demo, but who have actively searched for and investigated the client’s brand.

“As a result of his efforts, behavioral targeting and re-messaging are now considered core assets to the Microsoft Advertising business in Canada, and are forecasted to be significant revenue drivers in 2009 and 2010,” says Owen Sagness, vice-president, consumer and online, Microsoft Canada. “This was a worldwide first to market for Microsoft.”

Though he has a degree in history from the University of Western Ontario, O’Sullivan’s impact is being felt in the account books; he exceeded his revenue targets by 125% last fiscal year. He hasn’t left student life behind entirely however. He visits Masters classes at the Richard Ivey School of Business and Schulich School of Business to lecture on digital marketing.

O’Sullivan will be schooling the industry for a while yet, as he’s poised to play a prominent role in the company’s future. When it came time for Microsoft to end its partnership with Bell at Sympatico.MSN.ca, O’Sullivan was part of a senior team negotiating how advertising and traffic sharing would proceed going forward.

Big responsibilities for a guy who’s only three years out of university.