Making Your Digital Stories Rock!

This time of the year rocks at Microsoft Advertising. From Skype inventory expanding to Asia to our new People Powered Stories social advertising solutions, there is so much exciting stuff going on across the business. On top of everything, I get to travel around the region with Rich Media Rocks, our annual roadshow dedicated to harnessing the power of rich media to tell innovative and powerful digital stories. We will host events in Taiwan, Malaysia and India over the next two weeks.

This year, Rich Media Rocks will focus on Microsoft Advertising’s commitment to make it easier for brands to launch digital ad campaigns at scale while also giving creatives new and powerful canvases upon which to tell their stories. As part of that commitment, Microsoft Advertising was one of the first publishers to adopt all six IAB Rising Star Solutions in the U.S., implementing five of them already in Asia. Additionally, we worked alongside multiple partners to implement the IAB Filmstrip that we developed, and are very encouraged by its broad adoption. Here is a great example of Filmstrip in action from Ireland.

We fully understand that ROI and performance metrics will be important in order to continue the Rising Stars momentum. The IAB Filmstrip has increased both exposure time and interaction rates by over 90 percent compared to other rich media ads on the MSN homepage (IAB, 2011). We’re currently collaborating with the IAB and IPG Media labs on additional research that will use biometrics (i.e., eye tracking) to track the impact of the IAB Rising Stars ad units versus standard ad units; the results will be revealed at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.

Rich Media Rocks is a great opportunity to see award-winning creative formats in action and experience custom solutions that help brands create emotional connections with target audiences. Attendees will also get first-hand, expert advice from our industry partners. This year we are inviting guests from My Creative Sherpa Asia, Millward Brown and Mediamind, among others, to discuss how digital storytelling can spark interest, grab attention, and inspire action from audiences. They will be joined by special Microsoft speakers from Redmond and Asia, including Trevor Yeats, Bruno Fiorentini Junior and Neville Taraporewalla.

If you aren’t able to make it to Rich Media Rocks this year, you can follow the action on Facebook or Twitter using #richmediarocks.

Let’s keep up the positive momentum and continue to help the industry rock in Asia!

Cindy Lee, Go-To-Market Lead, Microsoft Advertising Asia