Microsoft’s Billion Dollar Media Bailout Plan

The advertising recovery is already in the works, but this could help move it along quite nicely: Close to a billion dollars in marketing money, courtesy of Microsoft.

That’s what Steve Ballmer and company will spend to push two big consumer tech rollouts in the coming months: Windows Phone 7, its attempt to claw back share from Apple and Google, and Kinect, its attempt to push its Xbox 360 platform past Sony and Nintendo.

Redmond’s plans for its phone rollout will reportedly involve more than $400 million in marketing efforts. And Kinect, a motion-sensor add-on for the Xbox, will be a half-billion-dollar project, says the New York Post’s Claire Atkinson. Here’s where some of that money will get spent:

• Burger King promotion
• Pepsi promotion
• Kellogg’s cereal promotion
• YouTube homepage takeover
• Ad buys on Nickelodeon, Disney sites
• Ad buys on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” and Fox’s “Glee”
• Ad buys on Time Inc.’s People and InStyle
• Times Square event