Qwest Communications and Chevrolet Sign On As Key Sponsors of the Official Salt Lake 2002 Web Sites

REDMOND, Wash., and NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2001 — MSN, NBC, MSNBC and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 today announced that Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE “Q”) and Chevrolet Motor Division have become the first sponsors of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games’ official Web sites, which organizers believe will be the largest event Web site in sports history. The Olympics site, which launched today, will attract a large, global audience that will be the first to experience the interactive and integrated advertising solutions from the MSN®
network of Internet services. As sponsors of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games site, Qwest and Chevrolet Motor Division will be the first to have an opportunity to use MSN Advantage Marketing’s advanced advertising technology on http://www.olympics.com/ and http://www.nbcolympics.com/ .

“The technology expertise of MSN has led to the development of these new advertising products and will help sponsors to maximize their opportunities on the Olympics site,” said Richard Bray, vice president of MSN at Microsoft Corp. “There couldn’t be a better time or place to showcase this advanced ad technology than with the Olympic site’s unparalleled content expected to draw a huge global audience.”

“As a proud communications sponsor of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Qwest is also pleased to be the Yellow Pages provider and a sponsor of the official Olympic Web site,” said George Burnett, chief marketing officer for Qwest. “The ability to reach out to a huge audience and talk about Qwest’s industry-leading broadband capabilities is a tremendous opportunity for us. This sponsorship further enhances Qwest’s support for the games. Hundreds of Qwest employees built a state-of-the art fiber-optic network that encircles all Olympic venues and links to our broadband network, which supports all major sporting, cultural and business events during the games.”

MSN technology will allow Qwest and Chevrolet to integrate their offline Olympics sponsorships online to interact with consumers in real time. As the presenting sponsor of the “You be the Judge” interactive figure skating scoring application on the official Web site, Qwest is enabling Internet users globally to vote and score the skaters’ routines, and receive an instantaneous comparison of the online audience’s response to the judges’ official scores during the live NBC broadcast. Qwest is participating in the Olympics’ first multiplatform sponsorship opportunity as sponsor of the Olympic News Alerts, which delivers Olympics news to a user’s PDA or PC desktop. QwestDex will bring consumers the premier directory search on MSNBC.com.

As a Presenting Sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay, Chevrolet will expand its offline sponsorship onto the site on Olympics.com, which begins Dec. 4. On its 65-day journey, the Olympic flame will be transported via torchbearers, Chevrolet vehicles and other methods. MSNBC, the producer of the Salt Lake 2002 site, also will create exclusive content, including 360-degree imagery and a daily slide show accessible on Olympics.com and NBCOlympics.com, enabling people to follow the action during the games.

“Chevrolet Motor Division will be the driving force behind the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic torch relay as it makes its way across the nation, and we are pleased that through our partnership with MSN and MSNBC, millions of people around the world will experience the relay online,” said Stephen McGuire, interactive manager for Chevrolet advertising and sales promotion.

Advertisers on the 2002 Games site will have an exclusive opportunity to build their brand using an early suite of MSN Advantage Marketing’s next generation of digital advertising solutions before they become widely available after March 1, 2002. In addition to Qwest and Chevrolet, other sponsors that choose to work with MSN and the Salt Lake 2002 site can use these innovative advertising products to engage consumers and build their brand awareness among the Olympic site’s global audience:

  • Full page ad: This completely new ad product extends the functionality of traditional ads by allowing consumers to print the ad and add the accompanying URL to their Internet Explorer favorites.

  • Three types of Skyscraper ads: One of these types has up to eight scrolling text links. A second type contains three buttons for consumers to scroll through multiple creatives. A third type contains a user-initiated left-horizontal ad that flies out and automatically collapses.

  • Three data-driven ad types: About half the size of traditional banners, the first ad is based on an XML data feed, which can be updated every three days. The second uses an animated GIF to display a series of up to three elements. The third allows a user to scroll through up to 10 pages on the left of the ad with a persistent creative message on the right side.

As the only major portal to develop proprietary advertising technology, MSN designed these new products to tap the uniquely interactive properties afforded by the Internet to help build brands in a way not available on other advertising media. More information on MSN Advantage Marketing is available at http://www.advantage.msn.com/ .

Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE “Q”) is a leader in reliable, scalable and secure broadband data, voice and image communications for businesses and consumers. The Qwest Macro Capacity®
Fiber Network, designed with the newest optical networking equipment for speed and efficiency, spans more than 190,000 miles globally. More information is available at the Qwest Web site at http://www.qwest.com/ .

Chevrolet is the largest division of General Motors, which is the official domestic automotive sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Team through 2004. By utilizing its network of 4,300 dealers who fulfill the transportation needs of more than 36 million Americans daily through the broadest lineup of cars, trucks and vans in the industry, Chevrolet is putting the relay on the road and sharing this event with millions of American hometowns.

NBCOlympics.com is part of “The Complete Olympics” and presented in concert with NBC’s broadcast and cable programming on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC. NBC, America’s Olympic Network, owns the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympic Games through 2008, including the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, the 2004 games in Athens, Greece, the 2006 games in Torino, Italy, and the 2008 games in Beijing.

MSNBC.com is the leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet, MSNBC.com delivers the best of NBC News, MSNBC Cable, NBC Sports, CNBC and MSN. MSNBC is a 24-hour cable and Internet joint venture of Microsoft and NBC News.

MSN attracts more than 270 million unique users worldwide per month. Available in 34 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and digital marketing solutions to businesses worldwide. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ . International sites are located at http://www.msn.com/wwcon/intl_map.asp .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software –any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and MSN are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

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