MSN is fuelled by what’s ‘now’; their specialist team of editors and journalists work tirelessly to scour the globe, filter the trends and make sense of the chaos, bringing you the #bestofnow. In other words: cherrypicking.

 

For consumers, it means having content that is inspiring, engaging and relevant to now. Take for example the biggest sporting event of the year; London 2012. MSN UK had 30+ MSN editors and writers offering dedicated, exclusive coverage of all the Olympic action, from 8am to midnight every day, across PC, mobile, apps, Facebook and Twitter.  The unique gold coverage included:

  • A HTML5 interactive timeline of top Olympic highlight

  • A Twitter mosaic & data visualizer

  • A medal wall on postbox showing all medal winners and displaying users’ tributes to team GB’s hero’s

  • A big map of the torch relay and Olympic venues overlaid with tweet hotspots and guides to what Olympic events were going on in different areasThe international Olympic challenge games, inviting MSN users to compete on behalf of their nation
  • Venue Guides: MSN presents a unique combination of videos, photos and maps to bring its readers closer to the venues of the Game
  • Sport guides: Offering readers more about the different Olympics sports, disciplines and events including video, picture, rules and the latest updates on who’s winning
  • Athlete profiles of both international Olympic and local hero’s: This section offers readers more insights into their favourite heros.
  • Wallpaper packs and emoticon packs
  • Real-time data widgets available on the desktop and mobile especially for the hub. The four widgets are:
    1. Medal table
    2. Schedule
    3. Event Day
    4. Results

For advertisers, it’s having a more engaging platform to leverage your brands’ stories. Take for example the premium sponsorship and advertorial Peugeot have on MSN Cars News. This campaign was part of a multi-platform solution to promote and celebrate the launch of the Peugeot 208. As with all content sponsorships on MSN, Peugeot wanted to plug into MSN’s engaged audience to offer an integrated advertising solution. Peugeot utilised the Re:Skin and MPU creative formats which will run for two months on MSN Cars News.

NOW comes the cherry on top! COMPETITION TIME!

We’ve cherrypicked the hottest #bestofnow prizes for you to win over the next week. Simply tweet your favourite piece of MSN UK content including the hashtag #bestofnow and @MSAdvertisingUK – the best daily tweet will win. T&Cs apply and UK residents only folks!

Good luck and discover the #bestofnow on MSN by visiting http://advertising.microsoft.com/uk/advertise-msn.

Leena

(@LeenaShahUK)