To mark the launch of the new Web portal MSN.ca—which went live September 1—and to showcase the opportunities available through Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft Canada invited more than 500 guests to an interactive event at Oasi Thursday. “It’s a celebration of MSN.ca, but we’re so much more than just this fantastic portal,” said Tracy Cresswell, senior trade marketing manager with Microsoft Advertising. “We have a lot of other offerings in this space under Microsoft Advertising that a lot of folks don’t know about because we haven’t been able to come to market with it. What I wanted to do was, instead of telling people about what we have, really let them experience everything that Microsoft Advertising is.”
Cresswell worked with marketing firm Maritz Canada Inc. on the design, decor, theme, and creative for Thursday’s event. “The gist of tonight is really to give people a sense of celebration around the portal itself and the launch of the new portal, but it’s also to give them a sense and a sampling of the rest of what the Microsoft Advertising network offers,” said Sean Claessen, executive creative director with Maritz. “So as you walk through the space, areas have been delineated and dedicated to all of the various things in the portfolio.”
When guests entered the venue they walked into an area dubbed the lifestyle room, where stylists from Redd Hair Studio offered touch-ups and West Salon & Spa offered mini manicures. That room connected with the MSN sports room, where guests could take part in a beer tasting and watch the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season opener. From there, guests could wander into the experience room, where organizers set up a human detector that caused projected MSN butterflies to move when guests walked past.
“I think the idea is to try and give folks a sense of how all of the different properties that are available to them through the Microsoft Advertising Network can be linked together and daisy-chained with one another to create a consistent story and experience for people,” Claessen said.
In the main space, guests could check out new search engine Bing, Windows Live and Windows 7 software, and Xbox games Scene It and Rock Band. “We wanted to give people an opportunity to really enjoy and celebrate and experience some of our solutions,” said Cresswell, who also organized a V.I.P. launch event for 100 executives at the Distillery District on September 24.
Both events tied in with Microsoft’s "Let’s Talk" consumer campaign, she said. Shae-Lynn Mathers, an account director with Maritz, said event organizers wanted to give attendees something to talk about the following day. So the evening included a performance by the band Dragonette and a session by special guest DJ Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene. Guests could also tweet throughout the evening at Twitter stations set up around the space.
