Consumers were quick to embrace Outlook.com when it officially launched in February, and now the world’s fastest-growing email service is giving advertisers a smart new way to connect with them.
VersaTiles, a new ad format for Outlook.com, places a strip of tiles on the right side of your inbox. If you choose to interact with the tiles, they expand to let you explore more content about a brand and its products.
This video gives you a look at how versaTiles work:
“If you’re a major brand advertising in Outlook.com with versaTiles, you want to be able to tell your brand story in a way that doesn’t distract the person from the intimate action of reading their personal email,” said Jennifer Creegan, general manager for display advertising experiences.
“versaTiles help brands achieve this by using the tiles on the right rail of Outlook.com as a way to deliver up a variety of different creative components, be it video, image galleries or interactive text fields.”
The new format is the latest in a series of innovative new ad formats created by Microsoft, including the award-winning IAB Filmstrip and a recent slate of Windows 8 Ads In Apps pilots, that let consumers control if and how they want to engage with brand advertising.
IAB Filmstrip:
Ads in Apps:
“We know that when a consumer chooses a message or how to participate with an ad, that engagement with the brand is much more powerful to both the consumer and the brand,” Kreegan said of the new formats.
“versaTiles are a part of our larger vision to create ads that are beautiful, relevant and useful to consumers as well as valuable to advertisers and publishers.”
To learn more, read Jennifer Kreegan’s blog post announcing the arrival of versaTiles.
Steve Wiens
Microsoft News Center Staff