MSN Launches Biggest Ever Ad Campaign

MSN has launched its biggest ever retail marketing campaign to raise the profile of its online shopping channel in the run up to Christmas.

The £1m campaign, which includes radio, press, online and outdoor activity aims to attract over a million page impressions to the MSN shopping portal over the Christmas period by providing online shoppers with gift ideas from highstreet brands including; Boots, John Lewis and WHSmith.

Initial online activity will be supported by magazine inserts in Glamour, Cosmopolitan, FHM, Time Out and OK! and a three week radio campaign will run across Virgin, Kiss and Capital from 19 November. Cross-track poster sites have also been bought in underground stations in London’s West End.

MSN’s consumer marketing director, Tracy Blacher, said: “MSN is setting aggressive standards for another year on year traffic increase. We’re going after the prized number one spot and we’re confident that our marketing campaign will deliver.”

MSN will face competition from Freeserve, which is expanding its e-commerce portal into a “virtual shopping precinct” to cash in on the predict pre-Christmas boom in e-commerce (see Freeserve Gears Up For Online Christmas). The rival internet service provider also hopes to provide shoppers with a one-stop-shop option and has signed promotional deals with Boots, John Lewis and Tesco.

Internet research agency, Lightspeed, predict that the amount of people intending to shop online this Christmas will increase by over 50%. A survey carried out by the company found that almost 30% of the total UK internet population intend to shop online this Christmas, indicating a potential expenditure of nearly £600 million.

MSN: 020 7465 7700 www.msn.co.uk

Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive