MSN Kicks Off Competition for Second Annual Emmessennys

REDMOND, Wash., March 15, 2004 — The best and brightest talents in online advertising will soon need to clear space in their agency’s trophy cases and on their corporate rsums. In the United States, MSN began accepting entries today for its second annual Emmessennys, a creative competition rewarding the most outstanding advertising content that appeared on the MSN online network over the past year.

Sponsored by the AdAge Group, the Emmessennys will be awarded Aug. 4 in New York City. Applicants have until midnight on May 31 to submit entries, at http://advertising.msn.com/contest/ . But it won’t pay to wait until the last minute, because MSN is offering valuable incentives to the first 20 applicants, and all entries will be featured on http://advertising.msn.com/services/creativecontest_showcase.asp .

“Agencies are raising the bar, creating innovative and impactful online advertising campaigns,” said Joanne Bradford, chief media revenue officer for MSN. “For a second year, MSN will hold an awards show that recognizes brilliant creative and provides opportunities for these campaigns to get noticed. The second annual Emmessennys is an example of MSN’s commitment to partnering with agencies to discover new and effective ways for marketers to reach an engaged audience online.”

Emmessennys Earn Recognition From Winners

Last year’s Emmessennys attracted nearly 150 entries from a number of the nation’s top advertising agencies, exceeding MSN’s expectations for the new contest.

“We were honored to be recognized at last year’s awards for our American Express campaign,” said Matt D’Ercole, vice president and creative director at Digitas LLC. “The client was happy too, as we donated the winnings to its favorite cause, Blue Save the Music.”

Other 2003 winners included Atmosphere BBDO, which took first place in Branding, and Euro RSCG Circle, which received first place in Rich Media. These and other 2003 winners can be viewed at http://advertising.msn.com/services/creativecontest_showcase.asp .

Best in Show Winner Will Receive $25,000

A panel of MSN sales and marketing managers, under the direction of Greg Stuart, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, will judge this year’s entries based on three criteria: creative execution, innovative marketing tactic or use of technology, and effectiveness of the ad in achieving the client’s business results while it ran on MSN. Building on the success of the contest, MSN will for the first time award a Best in Show prize for the best overall entry, along with first- and second-place awards in three categories: Branding, Direct Response and Rich Media. The Best in Show winner will receive $25,000 and the Emmessennys trophy. First-place winners of each of the other categories will receive $10,000, and second-place winners will each receive $5,000.

About MSN

MSN attracts more than 350 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 38 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and ad sales 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/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .

About Microsoft

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.

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