Visitors to the home page of the section are greeted with a Best Buy ad at the top of the page that morphs into editorial content. Kyoo Kim, vice president-sales at MSNBC.com, said the format is analogous to a television billboard that announces a sponsorship immediately before a show.
The subsection's home page currently contains a Best Buy logo reminding visitors about the sponsorship, a 300 x 125 graphic ad for Best Buy, and links to merchandise such as cameras and camcorders, available from Best Buy via MSN Shopping.
DigitalLife features articles on topics such as purchasing a satellite radio and pricing of digital televisions, as well as product reviews. Skyscraper ads appear next to the articles. Best Buy is paying for the ads on a cost-per-thousand impression basis, and MSNBC.com has guaranteed a minimum number of viewers each month.
While MSNBC.com did not state how many viewers it promised Best Buy, the technology section typically receives between 500,000 and 1 million page views a month, said Kim. MSNBC.com doesn't have plans for any other similar deals at present. "I would consider this a little bit of a one-off," Kim said. But, he added, that might change in the future--"as long as the money's right."