ASIA-PACIFIC – Microsoft today unveiled a first look of the new MSN for Asia Pacific, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. The new MSN combines premium content from the world’s leading media outlets with personal productivity tools to help consumers do more.
Starting today, Microsoft is inviting people around the globe to try out the new web experience at preview.msn.com, with the experience officially launching in the coming months. Additionally, the new MSN experience will soon extend to mobile apps across all major device platforms, including Windows, iOS and Android.
“While content is at MSN’s core, Microsoft’s DNA is about empowerment,” said Adam Anger, General Manager for Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising. “We’ve completely reimagined the experience to bring together deep content with productivity tools that help people get more done. And because it’s a single platform, once you personalize, you get the same experience everywhere – on every device that works for your life.”
MSN is partnering with some of the world’s best and most authoritative sources – including The New York Times in the U.S., Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun in Japan, The Guardian and The Telegraph in the U.K. – as well as leading publications from Asia such as The Hindustan Times and NDTV in India, CommonWealth Magazine Group in Taiwan, PCCW Media in Hong Kong, Nine Entertainment Co. in Australia, The Nation in Thailand, The Philippine Star in the Philippines, The Malaysian Insider in Malaysia and The Jakarta Post in Indonesia, among others.
Spanning multiple categories including sports, news, health and fitness, money, travel and video, the new MSN provides a global perspective from thousands of publishers across the world. Information ranges from the latest stats on over 200 global sports leagues, reviews of more than 1.5 million bottles of wine, to over 300,000 gorgeously photographed recipes and more. MSN editors will be able to draw from more than 1,000 global and local sources to hand-curate a unique experience for each market.
The new MSN makes information ‘actionable’ by incorporating personal productivity tools like hotel booking engines, shopping list generators, flight checkers, and savings calculators into the new experience. Additionally, the new MSN connects to popular services like Outlook.com, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, OneDrive, Xbox Music and soon Skype, allowing users to see their latest updates, emails and chats.
A clean, fresh design makes it easy to find and enjoy content most important to each user, letting them organize categories and interests to personalize the layout of the homepage. And because the new MSN is designed to work across multiple devices, each user’s preferences will automatically change across the web and app versions.
Users can choose their favorite cities for weather, sports teams, and restaurants, staying connected to the content that matters most at work, at home or on the go.
For brands, MSN offers audiences a personalized web experience, quality content from both global and local publishers, and engagement across the PC, phone and tablet. With an audience of nearly 425 million people coming to 57 markets around the world available across the three major device platforms, the new MSN is an ideal environment for seamless brand storytelling across screens.
“The transformation of MSN allows brands to be in the thick of a rich library of premium content that travels with readers throughout the day, regardless of device,” said Ben Poole, Head of Interaction for Asia Pacific, MEC. “This positive brand association is a win for the industry and a win for users looking for quality content in an adaptable environment. We are incredibly excited to bring new campaigns to life on the reimagined MSN.”
Though the face of MSN has transformed, the process of buying ads is simple. Brands can still enjoy ease of purchasing through similar IAB standard units available on previous versions of MSN.
“With premium content and productivity tools, we’re thrilled to offer a new experience to both advertisers and consumers,” said Ken Chang, Regional Sales Director for Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising. “The new MSN allows advertisers to be in more moments and to capture consumers at the right mindset throughout the day.”
