ninemsn’s new media centre ticks all the boxes

Have to say I really like ninemsn’s new media centre.

I stumbled upon it today looking for ad specs for a client schedule.

http://mediacentre.ninemsn.com.au/

Trade marketing sites are generally boring. Really boring. Lots of boring research and links. A few blah executive bios and if you’re lucky, ad specs. So why do I like this one?

1/ They’ve given their major commercial heads a voice. Joe Pollard and Kerry McCabe have started blogs, that if updated could be really interesting. Kerry McCabe’s blog covers a potentially sensitive topic (taking aim at FD and News around how many users of a state based masthead actually reside in that state) and that is a really good thing. Joe Pollard is an accomplished marketer and people want to know her thoughts. If this can be maintained it will give ninemsn a real point of difference

2/ They are doing something to push creative innovation through The Butterfly Award – http://mediacentre.ninemsn.com.au/butterflyaward - which addresses innovation, cut through and impact. All relevant issues.

3/ This initiative puts ninemsn back into a thought leadership position. With the DMS events back a few years, ninemsn was responsible for bringing a lot of leading digital thinkers to town and introducing technologies and insights (Rex Briggs, Jeff Cole, Massive) which hasn’t been done the last few years.  Ninemsn having a visible stance on the future direction of digital marketing is resoundingly positive and puts it in the position of a ‘media company’ not a technology company.

4/ Case studies. Okay – they’re not that deep nor local – but they are brands people know and have enough depth to back up a claim or recommendation.

5/ The ad specs are in a format mere mortals can understand. Technical specs plus links to additional information from the ad serving companies.

6/ It’s light on the sell. Ninemsn does talk about themselves being the ‘House of Brands’ (not sure this is a pillar to differentiate yourself on as most publishers claim their brands are premium/loved etc) but there’s not much Nielsen/Morgan spin nor competitor comparisons.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves but the beginnings are really promising.