The Windows Live Messenger 234x60 ad unit (circled below) is expandable to either a 300x250 or 300x600 ad unit.

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1 Windows Live Messenger 234x60 Expandable Last Updated June 26, 2009 The Windows Live Messenger 234x60 ad unit (circled below) is expandable to either a 300x250 or 300x600 ad unit. Figure 1: Expandable Ad Unit with the Retracted Ad (234x60) Figure 2: Expandable Ad Unit with the Expandable portion activated (300x250)* Figure 3: Expandable Ad Unit with the Expandable portion activated (300x600)* * Note: These images are mock-up examples. pg. 1

2 CREATIVE BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS This ad presents a powerful opportunity to engage users in an imaginative and compelling way. The creative guidelines below are designed to help you create an ad that users will interact with by achieving the right balance between marketing impact and end-user satisfaction. Please follow these guidelines in developing creative: Respect the user: Ensure that you don t use any garish or high contrast colours, as well as brash flashing elements. Keep the ad visually different from the content: keep the visual style, colors and format of the expanding portion different from the content (Messenger contact list). The expanded experience should never cover more than 300x250 pixels or 300x600 pixels depending on the ad size chosen. Use animation carefully: Keep animation smooth and fluid, using slow motions and gentle fades. Fast and abrupt motion has been shown to be highly irritating. Use Audio carefully: Audio begins playback on initial mouse over and subsequent clicks, and must stop when a user uses the mute control or mouses off the creative. Audio is only available on creative which contains a video element. DATA REPORTED MSN: Ad requests Third party ad requests, click through, video plays and panel expansion reporting will be available at the conclusion of the campaign. AD SPECIFICATIONS 1. The creative, which can be either video or rich media loads in the 234x60 ad unit located at the bottom of the Live Messenger Contact list. The max file size is 30k. 2. When there is a video component, a muted teaser video plays (up to 30 seconds) and a control panel is available to interact with. If it is just a standard flash based creative, the ad may animate for up to 30 seconds. 3. Expandable to 300x250: The user mouses over the 234x60 which launches the expansion panel, which covers the initial creative and smoothly expands down and left, to a maximum total size of 300x250 pixels. Expandable to 300x600: The user mouses over the 234x60 which launches the expansion panel, which covers the initial creative and smoothly expands up and right, to a maximum total size of 300x600 pixels. Please note that the ad must appear to expand from the 234x60 unit to the 300x250 unit or 300x600 unit, instead of just popping up and replacing the 234x60 with the 300x250 or 300x If the ad has a video component, the video begins to play automatically. Audio may also begin to play automatically. If the ad does not have a video component, sound must be initiated by click. Also, the ad s control panel remains accessible, so the user is able to mute the audio, or stop the video playback. The expanded pg. 2

3 portion has a maximum file size of 100k, and must say Close X in size 10 font or larger. There is a limit of 30 seconds of audio and video, after which the video can replay on user click. All replays must be user initiated. If the ad has a video element, the video element must not exceed 2.2 MB in size. 5. If the user clicks on the creative, it must open the click-through landing page in a new browser window. When the user mouses off or clicks to close the panel and the expansion panel reverts back to the initial 234x60 pixel creative. 6. For future views, the user must click the initial creative to see the expansion panel, instead of just mousing over the 234x60 creative. For subsequent views, when the user clicks on the ad, it will re-launch the expansion panel, containing the video element. FLASH / CLICKTAG INSTRUCTIONS The Following instructions outline how to setup Flash Ads to allow Click-through Tracking How to setup Flash Ads to allow Click-through Tracking DETAILS The geturl Tag should be used for creative with a single destination URL. Only fscommand Tag can be used in creative with multiple destination URLs (not available for creative that will run within the Direct Response (DR) CPA or CPC program) Please note: Using geturl and fscommand for the same URL will result in the click through being executed twice and in turn double click reporting. geturl is supported in all versions of Flash. pg. 3

4 Follow these steps for fscommand: 1. Use the string "URL1" (with quotes) as the first parameter to the fscommand action. Note: URL1 is a variable (or reference to) and not the actual destination URL. In this case, no actual URL should be used in the Flash file. The actual destination URL is submitted to MSN and assigned as Variable URL1= URL1 is used if MSN tracking is required. In basic action scripting mode: quotes are automatically inserted in the command line In advanced action scripting mode: quotes need to be manually inserted fscommand must look exactly as shown in diagram Below is an example of what the finished button script will look like: on (release) { fscommand("url1"); } Follow these steps for geturl: Note: The clicktag is case-sensitive in Flash version 7 and above and must be "clicktag". In other versions of Flash, it is not case-sensitive, but it is recommended to be "clicktag". 1. Select geturl in the button from where you want the URL navigation to trigger. 2. Type clicktag in the URL field. clicktag must look exactly as shown in diagram. Note: clicktag is case sensitive. Below is an example of what the finished button script will look like: on (release) { geturl(clicktag, "_blank"); } pg. 4

5 These parameter strings are passed by the MSN JavaScript code to signal that the flash banner will click through. VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS The maximum size for any video asset is 2.2 MB (progressive download or streamed) Video duration: 30 seconds for muted 234x60 unit Acceptable formats: o Deinterlaced uncompressed Quicktime o WMV, AVI, MPEG Please be sure the footage is uncompressed so that we can help ensure the highest quality video. CREATIVE Submit the following to MSN Video Assets (see above) Initial creative asset including an FLA and backup GIF or JPG with the dimensions 234X60 pixels. Expansion panel creative asset as an FLA. Click-through URL Any third-party tracking tags. Any custom fonts used in the creative Element Width Height File Weight Expand Interaction Audio / Video or Animation Duration Audio Interaction Frame Rate Flash Version Initial k Rollover for first expansion, click for subsequent expansions 30 seconds Optional, user initiated by click. No looping and must have unmute controls. 18 fps Flash 8.0 or lower pg. 5

6 Expanded (option 1) k secondary download Must say Close X in 10 point font or larger 30 seconds Optional, user initiated by click. No looping and must have unmute controls. 18 fps Flash 8.0 or lower Expanded (Option 2) k secondary download Must say Close X in 10 point font or larger 30 seconds Optional, user initiated by click. No looping and must have unmute controls 18fps Flash 8.0 or lower Down Level Experience K n/a n/a n/a n/a No Flash, GIF, JPEG AD SUBMISSION GUIDELINES MSN requires 10 full business days to test and prop MSN Rich Media solutions. Please allow ample time for this process prior to promotion start date. NOTE ANY ELEMENT NOT MEETING SPEC WILL BE RETURNED FOR REVISION, WHICH MAY DELAY THE EXPECTED LIVE DATE. If you have any questions regarding creative submissions, please your MSN Account Executive, Account Manager or Sales Planner. pg. 6