SearchMax

REDMOND, Wash. — March 16, 2005 — Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., will deliver the keynote address at the sixth annual MSN® Strategic Account Summit, a leading industry forum held on Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, where many of the industry’s most innovative thought leaders will meet to discuss what will shape the advertising industry today and in the future.
Based on feedback from marketers and customers, MSN developed a two-day agenda within the theme of “Mastering the Medium,” armed to help the more than 500 attendees identify opportunities to most effectively reach their audiences. Attendees also will gain insights into MSN’s vision and strategy and will have the opportunity to hear and interact with industry-leading speakers in categories such as branding, direct-response campaigns and privacy. Examples of innovative work, best results, trends and accomplishments that reach beyond the boundaries of today’s advertising will be highlighted at the summit to encourage the industry to continue to move forward on the road to mastery.
Speakers and panelists at the sixth annual summit include the following:
Barry Diller, chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp.
Mark Burnett, creator and executive producer of reality television programs such as “Survivor” and “The Apprentice”
Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO and chairman of the executive committee of Google Inc.
Ted Meisel, president of Yahoo! Search Marketing and senior vice president of Yahoo! Inc.
Ann Fudge, chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands
“Microsoft’s Strategic Account Summit is one of the most important industry events of the year for advertisers, publishers and creative agencies,” Ballmer said. “We are proud to host many of the top thought leaders from the advertising and media community, and join them in addressing how to interact and communicate with consumers in new and meaningful ways online.”
MSN to Preview Prototype Advertising Platform
At the summit MSN also will unveil Microsoft’s next-generation online advertising platform, MSN adCenter, built on Microsoft® technology that will help advertisers get higher returns by understanding and connecting to their desired audience throughout the MSN network. Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division, will demonstrate the first component of MSN adCenter, a new prototype of an MSN paid-search solution for which a pilot program will begin within the next six months in Singapore and France to gather customer feedback.
Within the MSN adCenter platform, the new MSN paid-search solution will be tightly integrated with other future capabilities to give advertisers a one-stop shop from which to plan, execute and adjust their online campaigns. The new MSN paid-search solution will provide keyword buyers with in-depth audience intelligence including geographic location, gender, age group, lifestyle segment and time of day. As a result, advertisers should be able to plan more strategic advertising investments and achieve higher click-to-buy conversion rates among consumers. MSN remains committed to working with Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and will continue to collaborate with it to offer high-quality search listings to advertisers.

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