FOXSports.com on MSN Selects Unicast to Create Premium Rich Media Ads

Unicast by Viewpoint, a Internet marketing technology company, announced the
launch of two premium rich media products created for FOXSports.com on MSN. The
Unicast Active Header and Push Down Expandable products are currently running
on the home page of FOXSports.com on MSN. The Unicast Premium Rich Media (PRM)
formats will help FOXSports.com to better monetize the property, while offering
engaging interactive ads with increased performance for their clients.

FOXSports.com on MSN selected Unicast for its innovative rich media
technologies, which enable the creation of high-end ad units providing
marketers with cutting edge formats that cut through the online advertising
clutter. The new custom ad formats illustrate Unicast
’s
commitment to driving innovation in the rich media marketplace through the
ongoing creation of new, exciting, and more engaging ad formats. Capitalizing
on emerging trends, these custom formats present increased interactive
functionality and user-controlled viewing options, which offer a better
experience for both marketers and their target audience.

Active Header
– The Unicast Active Header on
FOXSports.com on MSN is a rich media ad unit that expands over the
FOXSports.com navigation header, allowing the publisher to monetize additional
advertising real estate. The ad content appears in the header and then slowly
dissolves behind the FOXSports.com messaging. The Active Header can be replayed
by the end-user and is clickable throughout the duration of the ad.

See the ad: http://www.unicast.com/products/msn_foxsports_active_header/

Push Down Expandable
– The Unicast Push Down
Expandable products for FOXSports.com on MSN are highly-engaging formats that
improve the performance of traditional banner advertising by increasing
advertising real estate without interfering with the user
’s
browsing experience. As users interact with the ad, the ad expands and pushes
down the content of the page. When the user rolls away from the ad, the ad
transitions back into its original state. The content of the ad unit can be
updated dynamically for better campaign flexibility and optimization.

See the ad: http://www.unicast.com/products/msn_foxsports_pushdown/

The Unicast Push Down Expandable and Active Header ad units are highly
customizable and offer data capture functionality, as well as reporting and
engagement tracking. This provides advertisers and publishers access to
detailed campaign metrics that can be used to optimize the campaigns in real
time.

“We selected Unicast because of their innovative,
high end rich media formats and the company’s overall emphasis on using
technology to drive the online ad industry’s most creative campaign executions,
” said Rob Bennett, General Manager of Entertainment, Video
and Sports for MSN.
“Working with Unicast gives our
network of marketers a platform for delivering the most engaging and effective
ad formats on the market. Unicast’s ad formats will also help us to both better
monetize our ad inventory and enhance the quality of our site’s user
experience.”

“Unicast’s products enable top brands to deliver the
type of flexible and engaging marketing campaigns that are perfectly
suited to the millions of passionate sports fans that visit
FOXSports.com on MSN every month,” said Gary Larkin, Vice President of
Sales for FOX Sports Interactive. “These new ad units complement our
newly-redesigned site and match our premium content with a suite of
premium advertising options for our clients.”

“We are very pleased to be working with MSN and FOX Sports.com, as they
are both extremely progressive in their adoption of high end rich media,
” said Jason McKay, vice president of Unicast.
“We are always looking for new ways to help publishers use
technology to enhance their online properties to make them more attractive to
advertisers. This is why our Premium Rich Media (PRM) products are the perfect
fit for MSN and FOX Sports.com.
”

“Our focus has always been on creating the most
flexible rich media and video ad platform in the industry,
”
said Patrick Vogt, CEO of Viewpoint.
“What we have
delivered truly helps advertisers and publishers improve the ROI for their
business. We believe that 2007 is the tipping point for the integration of
richer, more interactive online advertising, and Unicast will continue to be at
the forefront of this game-changing trend.
”