Targeted XBox ads
p2p news / p2pnet: Bill and the Boyz have a treat in store for XBox and other users.
“Targeted” display ads.
“Microsoft is testing multiple display formats with executions from 20 advertisers, including Coca-Cola Brazil, JCPenney and Monster Worldwide,” says Clickz News.
“Windows Live display ads are being tested in MSN Spaces in Australia and Italy. Windows Live Mail display ads are being tested in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the United States. Office Live display ads are being tested in the U.S.”
The story has Microsoft product manager Karen Redetzki saying, “We’re confident that advertisers are going to see good results.”
Test “creative” display ads differ for each “service,” but spaces will carry “super banners” and skyscrapers. “Live Mail will have super banners, skyscrapers, and a few other units in the login area, inbox, and on screens where users read or send mail,” says the story. “Office Live inventory will include display ads of various sizes and placements. Eventually, these may be joined by text ads, rich media and video formats, Redetzki said.”
Wanting a large piece of the $20 billion global Internet ad market, Microsoft wants to sell advertising with all its online services, “including Xbox Live for games, said Eric Hadley, senior director of advertising and marketing for Microsoft’s MSN unit, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“Everyone is trying to figure out how to get advertising into their products in a smart way,” Hadley said. “If you look at the audience that Xbox Live attracts, everyone wants to reach that audience.”
So let’s see. Whether you like it or not, that game box (for which you paid a ton of dollars) and Windows Live, etc, will now be used to try to sell you stuff you don’t want. And all the financial benefits thereof will go to Bill and the Boyz.
That’s how you get to be a 50-billionaire.
“Adding advertising to MSN spaces is an interesting decision, especially when competitive services such as Blogger are not only ad-free, but provide tools for bloggers to earn revenue through easy implementation of Google AdSense,” says SearchEngineWatch.
“However, bloggers will be relieved to learn that initial advertising in MSN Spaces is limited to Australia and Italy at this time.”
When it’s discussing AdSense, SearchEngineWatch should qualify its statements.
“Easy implementation of Google AdSense” only works for some. For others, Google wrongly assumes click-sins have been committed, blocks the ads, keeps the income and flatly refuses to explain.
Also See:
Clickz News – Windows Live Ad Tests Underway, March 16, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer – More sign on for Microsoft online ads, March 16, 2006
SearchEngineWatch – Microsoft Begins Testing Advertising In Live Products, March 15, 2006
wrongly assumes – Adsense, p2pnet and ‘fake clicks’, February 11, 2006
