New MSN Formats Go Public

Now that the Olympics are over, the new online advertising formats introduced on the Olympics sites by MSN will be available to the general advertising public.

The company introduced a variety of new formats during the Olympics that can now be used by advertisers at different areas of MSN.com and two of the sites MSN owns, Slate.com and Carpoint.com.

"We're trying to take it to the next level and be more creative and interactive for the consumer," says Christine Andrews, an MSN product manager. She says the new formats will provide more compelling advertising opportunities and more space for the advertising.

The new formats include four types of functionality available in three different ad sizes. The functionalities are full page, data-driven, showcase and fly-out. Data driven formats provide the ability to scroll updateable text links. Showcase ads allow advertisers to show moving images. Fly-out is an expandable panel that collapses when the user removes the mouse from the trigger areas.

The showcase can work in two different ways: a slideshow, which allows the advertiser to show a succession of images and a catalog, which lets the user choose which image to see by clicking on one of three buttons at the bottom of the ad.

The links on a data driven ad can be changed every three days, giving advertisers the opportunity to change the creative.

The ad sizes the functionalities will be available on are full page, Skyscrapers and half banners.

Advertisers used the new formats at the two Olympics sites during the games. Examples include Kleenex, which used a fly-out as part of its Emotional Moment campaign. A segment of the ad flew out from a Skyscraper to take the user to the next part of the ad. General Electric used the data driven functionality in a half banner ad. The ad showed lines of text within the small banner that could be clicked to get more information about GE products.

The new functionalities provide advertisers with an opportunity to expand the use of traditional formats. The showcase enables the Skyscraper to become a unit that can show a succession of images. The data driven functionality allows a half banner to become a link to a series of other sites.

The new formats will be available within the next few months, with some available at different areas of MSN and others at Slate and Carpoint. The formats will only be available for advertising at MSN related sites, since they are based on MSN technology. "It will be up to other sites to develop them," Andrews says, when asked whether other sites would be able to use the new formats. New formats developed by CNET, for instance, such as the Messaging Plus unit, eventually became an industry standard that could be used on other sites. It remains to be seen what happens with the new MSN formats.

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