Former Time Inc. exec Robin Domeniconi will start as Microsoft's (MSFT) VP of U.S. ad sales on January 1.

Robin's challenge: To make Microsoft's advertising inventory -- in search, mobile, display, and across Microsoft's ad network -- relevant to marketers who usually ignore it, preferring Google (GOOG) and even Yahoo (YHOO) instead.

One anecdotal example: The Obama campaign spent $3.5 million of its $8 million 2008 online advertising budget on Google -- in one month. Other than $467,000 on Facebook ads -- which are sometimes served by Microsoft -- the campaign only spent about $45,000 on Microsoft all year. (Yahoo got $673,000 from Obama in October alone.)

AdAge updated Microsoft's org-chart:

[Robin] will report to [Bill Shaughnessy, VP-global sales and marketing], who reports to Brian McAndrews, senior VP-advertisers and publisher services. Mr. McAndrews is part of a trio of online execs, including Yusuf Mehdi and Satya Nadella, who for now report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft is still seeking a replacement for Kevin Johnson, who oversaw Microsoft's online services business.

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