MSN+Video+Ads

= MSN Video Advertising =



Overview
MSN video is free online video player also known as [|Bing videos].” It offers a TV-viewing experience online, with breaking news coverage, sports highlights, movie previews, and music videos, MSN Video also offers MSN Originals—online shows that engage the audience through video, relevant content, communities and more.”(Microsoft.com, 2010) Many people now watch a lot of things online instead of on TV. Reasons for this may be the fact that the people who are watching online videos and shows don’t have the time to watch whatever it is they want to on TV; making online video streamers a popular place to watch or re-watch videos and great for advertising.

“Bing Video brings in videos from YouTube, Hulu, ABC and more, and directly hosts 900 TV shows. When you search for a show like True Blood, you get Bing’s familiar guided navigation on the left, which lets you narrow down your search by season, episodes, trailers, length, and format.”(Schonfeld, 2009)



Why choose MSN Video?
It has been said that a higher percentage of people pay more attention to online video advertisements than they do ads on TV. With their time-based advertising, people will be less annoyed with the advertisements, unlike before when they had an advertisement after every 2 videos. While this may not seem bothersome, some videos only last a minute or less. The idea of a time-based advertising is much more sufficient with ads only interrupting video watching every 3- 5 minutes. A high percentage of MSN video users purchase items online frequently. (Microsoft.com, 2010) MSN Video now allows users to easily create play lists of their favorite videos and share them with friends. An advantage of MSN Video advertising is the fact that there are more than one way to advertise. Some of these include video overlays which are static or animated ads that appear 12 seconds into the video. Users can click to launch streaming media ads within the player or to a desired click-URL destination. (Microsoft.com,2010)

Limitations
Some people might still find their videos being interrupted every 3-5 minutes to be just as annoying as having to watch an advertisement after every 2 videos. Something else that seems to bother the audience is the pre-roll advertisements that are shown before the video is able to play causing people to possibly leave the site and not view the advertisements.  Another factor that might limit views of advertisements on MSN video is the fact that many people now open up more than one page at a time and can completely ignore the ad that is playing on MSN video while looking at another page.

Costs
The most recent publication of average costs for placing ads on MSN video.“Pricing varies by publisher, but CPMs typically run from $20 to $30, according to media buyers. However, ad spending is constrained by the relatively small amount of video available. The OPA poll found that 53 percent of respondents who did not watch Web video said they would if they could find it more easily.” (Morrissey, 2005)

Reach and Frequency
MSN video has a high reach and frequency. MSN video has 13 million users in the U.S. each month. Of these 13 million, 47.2% access the web every day, 89.7% have a broadband connection, 37.3% access the web from work and 96.2% access the web from home. (Microsoft.com,2010) People can now make play lists of their favorite videos and are able to share them with their friends making the reach for audiences higher. With the MSN Video having different sections to choose from, advertisers are able to reach their specific targeted audience. MSN Video has sections such as TV, Music, News, Sports, Movie Trailers,etc.



<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Impact
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“MSN Video allows advertisers to present their best, most impactful creative to highly engaged users in an environment rich in safe and desirable content. The result: highly successful, measurable campaigns.”(Microsoft.com, 2010) This type of advertising sparks an interest in the audiences attention because they were already watching a video of their choice and are focused on the screen, waiting for the next part to start.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Audience Qualities
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The audience of the MSN video advertisements is active online users. Most likely making the audience more likely to purchase online; making advertisements more effective. The majority of the audience is male and female between the ages 25-54 and married with a college degree and/or professional or managerial job.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Success in MSN Video Advertising
Many well-known companies have turned to MSN Video for advertising. The majority had a successful advertising campaign using MSN Video. A few of these successful campaigns came from the following companies:


 * [|Heineken]
 * [|Mars]
 * [|Visa]
 * [|Kellogg’s]
 * [|AXE]

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">References

Engaging with Viewers on MSN Video. (n.d.). //Online Advertising for Marketers and Publishers-->. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from []//

Gartner, J. (2007, September 27). MSN Tweaks Video Advertising. //Marketing Shift Online Marketing Blog//. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from []

Morrissey, B. (2005, February 14). Yahoo!, MSN Bring More Marketers To Online Video. //Adweek: Advertising industry news and analysis//. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from http://www.adweek.com/aw/esearch/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000799355

Schonfeld, E. (2009, November 9). MSN Video Is Now Bing Videos. //TechCrunch//. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/10/msn-video-is-now-bing-videos/

Schroeder, S. (n.d.). New MSN Video Has Time-Based Advertising. //Social Media News and Web Tips – Mashable – The Social Media Guide//. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from http://mashable.com/2007/09/26/new-msn-video-has-time-based-advertising