Lucero Rises at Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft has promoted six-year veteran Mike Lucero to group product manager, brand advertising, a position in which he will oversee the “Realizing potential” brand campaign throughout the U.S. and 29 international markets.

Lucero reports to Alicia Anderson, senior director of advertising at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, and replaces Peter Cohen, who has been promoted to director of advertising.

“We are excited to have Mike on the team,” Anderson said. “We expect his vision for the brand and his enthusiasm to help us evolve and build on past accomplishments.”

The “Realizing potential” campaign, from Interpublic Group’s McCann Erickson in San Francisco, has won several creative competitions, including the ICON Awards, the Kelly Awards and the Chicago International TV Awards.

“Microsoft is one of the most storied global brands out there,” Lucero said. “I couldn’t think of a more exciting and strategically important marketing role within Microsoft than to continue to showcase the brand in ways that are relevant to our many audiences.”

Lucero has more than 11 years of experience in advertising and marketing. He was most recently group product manager for Xbox Live, where he was instrumental in launching the broadband subscription service. In that position, Lucero was responsible for the go-to-market strategy, which included total communications efforts across 20 countries and entertainment-marketing programs with partner firms such as Warner Bros., Universal Music and ESPN.

Lucero holds a master’s degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington, Seattle.