» Posted on October 11th, 2006
» Filed under MSN
» 14 comments

No this isn’t the chain-spam-email. MSN AdCenter is giving the next 200 people $50 credits in their AdCenter accounts.

Over the last few months, we’ve been cooking up a new feature that we think many of you will appreciate: promotion codes (a.k.a. “coupons”).

It took a lot of planning and work to mint promotion codes to give current and potential advertisers incentives to try adCenter. First, we had lots of meetings to decide what type of codes we’d need – single or multi-use*? – how about both? We also discussed other important things such as, should we call it a coupon? We decided to go with “promotion code.” Second, you need a stellar program manager to write up a spec that incorporates all of the adCenter teams’ needs (thank you, Om!). Third, you need help from the service and operations teams to think through all the possible and creative uses of promotion codes. Finally, you need amazing engineers to build a product that can scale to your needs.

We lucked out. All the cooks in the kitchen pulled together, and over the weekend we shipped promotion codes.

Most of our promotion codes will likely be targeted to new advertisers, but today, for our blog readers, we’ve created a multi-use promotion code just for you: minty06

This code (minty06) can be applied to new or existing accounts. To redeem this promotion, existing users will need to sign-in to adCenter, select the Accounts & Billing tab, and then select an account from the list. On the Account Details page, at the bottom, there is a box where you can redeem your promotion code. Simply type the code in the box and click Save. There isn’t a confirmation message yet – that’s coming in the next update. New advertisers can redeem this promotion code during the sign-up process on the Billing tab.

This promotion is available to the first 200 adCenter advertisers that redeem it (one redemption per account), and is worth $50 for U.S. currency adCenter accounts (additional currencies and countries will be supported in upcoming releases). All the small-type text below explains the legal implications of redeeming this code.

We’re off to celebrate this feature launch now with our team (rumor has it someone brought in mint ice cream!). We hope you enjoy the coupon promotion code!

Thanks,
Kelly & Natala
Microsoft adCenter Product Managers

There is a bit of fine print on the AdCenter blog.