Microsoft invests $30m in MSN portal

NEWS Microsoft is investing $30m into its MSN portal over the next 12 months using a digital marketing programme, to entice European advertisers in the midst of a waning advertisement market. The investment into MSN Advantage Marketing will see the launch of new digital marketing products and services to help advertisers and brands build closer relationships with their customers, according to Microsoft. The $30m allocation is part of a larger $150m initiative to attract advertisers to its portals around the world. MSN Advantage Marketing is aimed at brand and direct marketing professionals and agencies who are cost-conscious regarding advertisement campaigns in the wake of the slumping global economy. Matt Whittingham, business-marketing manager at MSN UK, told silicon.com the programme has been developed to give added value to MSN's current customers who have found the current MSN service to be poor. However, forecasts for online advertising spending in Europe have been reduced on numerous occasions this year as advertisers raise questions on the medium's effectiveness. But Merrill Lynch stated it expects online advertising in Europe to grow by 24 per cent this year, though earlier on in the year other industry analyst were predicting that year-on-year growth rate for Europe would be three to four times that rate. Microsoft will start selling full-page adverts that appear while a web page is being downloaded. After a few seconds it shrinks to a fraction of the size so a reader can view the intended web page. As part of the $30m investment, Microsoft has expanded its online advertisement sales force to 150 from 40.