MSN Search and Win Contest
MSN has unleashed the highly anticipated MSN Search and Win game, where you can win fabulous prizes simply by searching on MSN. When I first heard about MSN bribing users to use their search engine, I imagined something like iWon - (the 1999-2000 version), but they've actually got a kind of innovative way to do their search contest. You actually search on keywords and if it's one of their pre-selected keywords, you'll see a sponsored ad at the top of the search results that says "Win a DVD Player with MSN". The actual prize it lists varies depending on the keyword you searched on. If you go to the main search and win page you can see some example keywords and click the "search and win" button and see what I mean. Then to see if you're an instant winner, you click on the sponsored link. You're then taken to another that says, "Sorry you didn't win, try again". Or I assume it says, "Congratulations, you won" or something to that effect if you actual win something.
Some people think this promotion is a bad idea and will only hurt MSN's brand by doing this type of promotion. I disgree. First, MSN has a weak brand as a search engine (compared to Yahoo and Google), and the "build a better search engine" idea was already taken by Google, so maybe it will take some marketing gimmicks like this to get people to give the new MSN search engine a try. You never know, some of those prize hunters might notice that MSN's search isn't half bad and maybe even come back to search for something they're really looking for.
I'm curious what kind of response advertisers will see from this. My hunch is that people who advertise for some of the same popular keyword "suggestions" from the contest homepage might see a big jump in clicks that don't necessarily convert to customers due to accidental or curious clickers who are quickly clicking around trying to win a prize from the contest. It is very likely that could happen because the contest links appear at the bottom of the sponsored text links with the regular paying customers right above them.
Some people think this promotion is a bad idea and will only hurt MSN's brand by doing this type of promotion. I disgree. First, MSN has a weak brand as a search engine (compared to Yahoo and Google), and the "build a better search engine" idea was already taken by Google, so maybe it will take some marketing gimmicks like this to get people to give the new MSN search engine a try. You never know, some of those prize hunters might notice that MSN's search isn't half bad and maybe even come back to search for something they're really looking for.
I'm curious what kind of response advertisers will see from this. My hunch is that people who advertise for some of the same popular keyword "suggestions" from the contest homepage might see a big jump in clicks that don't necessarily convert to customers due to accidental or curious clickers who are quickly clicking around trying to win a prize from the contest. It is very likely that could happen because the contest links appear at the bottom of the sponsored text links with the regular paying customers right above them.
posted by Dave @ 3:26 PM
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