MSN Feature of the Month Guidelines
Last Updated –April, 2015
Commercial creative can be developed by the client or Mi9 Studios team.
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MREC
Leaderboard
Skins
Refer to all specs here
The content format is developed by the Microsoft ICE UX/Design team. The following is required:
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Client logo in vector format such as AI or EPS (NOT JPEG or PNG or other bitmap file)
Client preference for association text, if any. Our default is to use "Sponsored by" as the association text, though
variants are possible.
Creative pack, including brand guidelines, fonts, colors, etc. If available, provide campaign assets that will be
running at the same time to inform design, colors, fonts, styles, photography, brand assets, etc.
Hi-res images for background creation should not be cropped. Provide image with layers in EPS if possible.
Native Advertising requirements:
Client requirements:
 Advertiser/Provider Logo Image: Please send the following assets (acceptable formats: .ai, .eps, .svg) so that we
can create the necessary logos for your Native Ad attribution.
 50x50 PNG & EPS
 100x100 PNG & EPS
 16x16 PNG & EPS
 24x24 PNG & EPS
 156x53 PNG & EPS
 350x70 PNG & EPS
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Advertiser/Provider Name - Please send the following assets for the Content Advertiser/Provider Name, which
will appear to the right of the Advertiser/Provider Logo Image.
 25 Characters Maximum, including punctuation and spaces
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Today Infopane
Today feature
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HREF/Linking URL
 Supports a single linking URL in the form of http://XXXXX
 This URL can link either to content within the MSN domain OR may link offsite to advertisers content
landing page.
 If advertiser is able to wrap the landing page URL with tracking code, OR provide a link that tracks clicks
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then redirects user to the proper landing page, this field may be used for 3 party click tracking as well.
 Additional click data is available via MSN content delivery logs.
Editorial requirements:
 Main Image - Please send the following assets for the Main Image element of the Native Placement. For Today
Infopane Native and Today Featured Native, this image will present as a full-bleed background. For the Today
Article Native this image will present within the content link to the left of the Title text.
Maximum File Size: 9MB
Suggested Dimensions: 1600x1600 Maximum, 150x150 Minimum. Larger images will be scaled down but
retain aspect ratio.
 Supported Image Formats: PNG, JPG, GIF
 Supported Aspect Ratios: 3:2, 2:3, 1:1. If the ratio of width to height is less than 0.5 or greater than 1.89,
the image may be unusable.
 Title Copy - 25 Characters Maximum, including punctuation and spaces.
 Article copy – no restrictions
NB: Infographs can only be accepted in the sizes outlined above (1600x1600)
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Video:
Supported Video Codecs
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Supported Audio Codecs
Supported Video Formats
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H.264 (Baseline, Main, and High Profiles)
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 (Simple and Main Profile)
MPEG-4 v2 (Simple Visual Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
VC-1 (Simple, Main, and Advanced Profiles)
AC-3 (Dolby Digital audio)
AAC (AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 with AAC-LC core, and HE-AAC v2 with AAC-LC core)
MP3
MP4: .mp4
MPEG-1 System Stream: .mpeg, .mpg
Audio-Video Interleaved (AVI): .avi
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