Apr. 18, 2007

Perhaps your response to the homepage experience late Wednesday and much of Thursday is one of these:

"Hey, that's kinda cool."

"Whoa! What in the heck just happened?"

What happened is that MSN is trying out a novel form of advertising.

Last week, a question posed here determined that a chunk of MSN users find experimental ads annoying, but almost 20 percent find them either interesting or, minimally, tolerable.

Perhaps those predisposed to dislike ads will recognize a creative and novel approach to exposing users to the Microsoft Office 2007 system, a product release obviously significant to Microsoft.

During one 24-hour period, MSN embarks on its initial foray into an interactive ad experience that enables users to preview and manipulate the fonts and pictures on the MSN.com homepage just like products in the new Microsoft Office suite, such as Word and PowerPoint.

The goal is to make it more than just interesting or tolerable, but engaging.

"We want to showcase some of the exciting new features of Microsoft Office so that our MSN users have the best insight into how this new product can work for them," explains Nichole Peterson, MSN's director of strategic relationships. This bold approach lets "consumers demo Office 2007 and test-drive it." People intrigued by its potential can then go to the Office 2007 site and either download a trial version or buy it.

"The 2007 Microsoft Office system is the most significant release of Office in more than a decade," says Chris Capossela, a corporate vice president in the Microsoft Business Division. “We’re excited about the strong reception we’ve seen in just the last few months  – more than 4 million people have already downloaded Office 2007.”

This effort is tied to an April advertising campaign that provides Microsoft a twofold opportunity: promoting a major software upgrade; and allowing MSN's advertising team a new level of creativity, complexity and interactivity with an in-the-family advertiser.

At the brainstorming stage, the digital advertising group that focuses on branded entertainment and experiences landed on this idea: What if MSN was inside Microsoft Office Word for the day?

The team then set out to make this experience interactive and informative — but optional. A link at the top right corner of the homepage allows users to opt out of the experience.

The fully interactive experience is available only to those who have the latest Flash upgrade; visitors who don’t will see a “snapshot” of the experience with an option to download and install Flash.

Leveraging the Flash capabilities, users can preview and adjust font styles and photo styles by interacting with the Word toolbar as it changes the MSN homepage. Users who arrive from a co-branded site such as Verizon may not see it.

For the ad's 24-hour run, the editors required that the unique advertising experience not interfere with users' ability to get news and information, and so updates to the homepage continue, uninterrupted.

"People getting to their daily news and information and using search is a top priority for us," Peterson says, "so we purposely didn't interfere with the ability to do that. At any time they can go and do what they normally do."

Not everyone will think of it as a "one-day celebration of Office on the MSN homepage" as one interactive specialist has called it. The presentation received usability and focus testing before it was deployed, but the nature of consumers, whether TV or Web, is that few admire advertisements.

We're hoping that many of you will find it worthy of comment. After you take it for a spin, please send off a note in the box at right. We welcome your feedback.