MSN Opens Inbox To Direct Video Advertising
Internet giant MSN has today announced an innovative deal with Columbia TriStar which will see users of its popular Hotmail service receive movie trailers streamed direct to their inbox.
The new campaign, to promote Columbia Tristar’s Gothika, will run through March and into early April. The deal follows a similar venture last November, when trailers for the film Bad Boys 2 were sent directly to Hotmail accounts without the need to wait for downloads, even through dial-up connections.
Columbia’s trailers will be targeted to specific customers within Hotmail’s 8.4 million user-base and will operate using the latest Flash talking technology. Each trailer will play at a size of 300 x 250 pixels and will load automatically as users log in to their e-mail account.
Commenting on the promotion, Amanda Anthony, MSN’s business marketing manager said: “MSN’s partnership with Columbia TriStar is at the forefront of online creativity. Our work on Bad Boys 2 was an industry first – and a hugely successful one that we now have the opportunity to repeat together. The Gothika campaign shows online’s capacity for personalised targeting as well as creativity – we are intimately targeting Columbia TriStar’s ideal demographic.”
Chris Filbody, account manager at Manning Gottlieb OMD, Columbia TriStar’s media agency, is enthusiastic about Hotmail’s ability to target specific users with particular content and gain complete accountability from the campaign. He said: “Hotmail offers substantial reach and micro-targeting of our target market online, allowing us to deliver the movie trailer straight into the inbox of our key demographic.”
He added: “We then track the number of people that actually viewed the trailer till the very end, allowing us to reach a cost-per-complete-trailer-viewed metric. Using Hotmail in this way ensures the trailer is used effectively and with the greatest impact.”
The move follows MSN’s decision last month to ban all pop-up advertising on its websites after customer research discovered they are a cause of major irritation to the majority of internet users (see MSN Bans Pop-Up Advertising Across Entire Network).
MSN: 020 7465 7700 www.msn.co.uk
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