MSN Advertising

Who can enter?

Any media or creative agency employed in the creation of online advertising in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom or a combination of two or more. If the same campaign is entered by different agencies, only the first submission will be entered into the competition

Employees of Microsoft or any person or agency directly involved in the creation or execution of this Contest are not eligible to enter.

Do I have to place an ad on MSN to enter?

Yes. The online advertising submitted for judging must have appeared on any MSN website between 1 March 2005 and 30 April 2006 to be eligible.

How many ads can I enter? An individual entrant may submit a maximum of three ads. All entries must be received by 11:59 PM GMT on 31st March 2006 to be eligible.

Which MSN sites qualify?

Ads can run on any MSN site in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom or a combination of two or more.

Which type of ads qualify?

Entries may be in the form of any ad type supported by MSN, including banner, button, content module, email, over-the-page ad, skyscraper, streaming, rectangle, MSN rich media and supported third party rich media solutions.

Who is judging the contest?

Entries will be judged in each category by a panel consisting of MSN sales executives and senior creative agency personnel. The judging panel will be chaired by Nicke Bergström, Creative Director, Farfar.

Will you publish information I provide about the ad’s business merits?

Microsoft will hold the entrant’s statement regarding the ad merit confidential and will not publish it in any form without the express written consent of the entrant.

What do you mean by rich media?

Rich media formats enable animation, audio and video and allow a user to interact with the ad. This new media leverages flash, java, javascript, streaming audio/video, XML, HTML, Shockwave, or DHTML technologies. Rich media ads can be in a Microsoft rich media format or any of the MSN-supported third party sites.

What are the prizes?

US$5,000 will be awarded to the first place winner, US$3,000 to the second place winner and US$2,000 to the third place winner in each category. In addition a further prize of US$5,000 will be awarded to the ‘best in show’ winner from among the placed winners across all 5 categories.

Who are the prizes paid to?

The prizes will be awarded to the companies responsible for submitting the entry, not the individuals submitting the entry on their behalf. Many companies have internal policies regarding employee acceptance of cash from vendors. It is the companies’ responsibility to determine equitable distribution of prize money in compliance with internal policies and procedures.

Will the entry be shown on MSN?

Entries may be displayed on the MSN Advertising websites across Europe and other MSN websites. However, Microsoft cannot guarantee that a particular entry will be showcased on its websites.

What is the deadline for submitting my entry?

All entries must be received by 11:59pm GMT on 31st March 2006 to be eligible.

Can I post in my entry form?

No, only online entries will be accepted.

Can I post the ad elements on a CD?

No, the advertising element files must be sent as WinZip attachments to awards@microsoft.com. CDs will not be accepted.

Will I be notified if my submission is incomplete or my ad elements are not received?

No, we will not notify entrants if their entry is not complete. Please check to make sure that you 1) complete the online entry form in it’s entirety before submitting, and 2) follow the instructions for submission of ad elements as listed in the Rules.