Meet Microsoft’s New Banner

May 16, 2011 • 1 min read • By Brian Morrissey

AOL has its Portrait unit, Microsoft now has the Filmstrip.

Microsoft debuted the unit, chosen along with Portrait in an industry search for new banner implementations, on Friday with an ad for Dodge as part of the carmaker’s Grand Caravan “Never Neutral” campaign. The unit will be available across MSN in the U.S. by the summer, the company said in a blog post.

The Filmstrip is a larger unit than the standard right side box ad MSN’s home page normally carries. It is similar to a skyscraper unit, but it shows a sequence of five screens with video and the ability to shift content from within the banner. The Dodge ad uses video footage of the car’s interior. SapientNitro built the ad for Dodge.

Microsoft intends the unit to be more than just solitary executions. As it rolls out across the MSN network, the company will use roll out the ads in a specific sequence to communicate a broader message.

The Flimstrip, Devil and other new ad units were rolled out by the Interactive Advertising Bureau as part of an effort to improve the creative options for advertisers without alienating users. The question for Microsoft and AOL is whether they’ll lead to an uptick in brand advertising — and the ad rates that come with it — than current banner offerings. The Filmstrip is mostly user-initiated, with the Dodge execution not having sound or any interruptive elements.

https://digiday.com/?p=4954

Digiday Top Stories

Life Beyond the Cookie
‘Not the future’: European publishers remain steadfast in blocking alternative IDs to third-party cookies
Some European publishers believe alternatives to the third-party cookies, probabilistic or deterministic, will do more harm than good to their ads businesses.
Member Exclusive
Media Briefing: Why Leaf Group spun off its media arm into a standalone company
World of Good's newly appointed CEO Lindsey Abramo spoke with Digiday about her plans to lean into experiential and embrace niche vs. scale.
Navigating Economic Instability
Dentsu’s latest ad report shows slowed growth, driven mostly by inflation
The good news in Dentsu's ad forecast is that there's still growth. The bad news: most of the growth is the result of inflation, while real ad pricing actually dropped a bit.
Sponsored
What the measurement and currency discussion really means to TV advertisers
Ali Mack, head of TV and agency, Experian Major streaming video providers have recently made headlines by adopting new currencies for ad measurement, threatening Nielsen’s long-standing TV ratings monopoly. NBCUniversal, for example, has certified iSpot and VideoAmp as currencies for advanced audiences and formed the Joint Industry Committee with Paramount, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery. […]
The Creator Economy
How chef influencer Tue Nguyen works with the BuzzFeed Creator Network
BuzzFeed's Creator Network has been valuable from an audience and production education standpoint, but Nguyen still drives most of her business on her own.
Experimental Channels
Dentsu’s new Web3 readiness tool shines light on the tech’s potential to complement AI
Dentsu's Innovation Initiative is launching a web3 readiness index next month — at a time when the industry is obsessed with AI. Could the two technologies actually make a good pair?