• by Shankar Gupta , June 15, 2006

MSN this week rolled out a giveaway campaign as the second phase of a viral effort aimed at testing consumer engagement and loyalty.

The program, "Flutters," which runs on MSN's vertical sites, offers users the chance to win prizes related to the site's content. For instance, visitors to MSN Autos can win free gas.

The first phase of the Flutters program, which quietly launched in April, was designed to call attention to the MSN butterfly by subtly animating the logo on certain pages. When users mouse over the butterfly, it animates again, and gives them access to a piece of trivia or information related to the vertical they're on.

The idea was "to give the butterfly a personality and sense of humor," said MSN Senior Marketing Manager Jocelyn Paul. "We're looking to surprise and delight our users, and measure engagement and loyalty."

Users can also access the microsite www.SetTheFluttersFree.com, which collects all the trivia tidbits on the same site, and allows users to send them to their friends. According to their tracking, provided by Omniture, MSN has seen an increase of two to three times the amount of time spent on the site after a user engages with the promotion, Paul said.

The promotion is currently in a quiet pilot--a viral campaign that has yet to spread. "We were very intentionally subtle around this, we really wanted to see what users would do if we gave them this opportunity," said Paul.

However, once the pilot ends late next month, the feature may move to a more prominent place on the MSN pages. At that point, advertisers will be brought in. "The component of the program that we're launching this week actually gives users a tangible gift that's contextually relevant to the site," Paul said. "I think there's a great potential for sponsorship there, especially if we know that this kind of interaction drives satisfaction and engagement."