Unilever MENA enters into a strategic partnership to be Microsoft’s food and drink content partner within the Lifestyle section of the MSN. June marks the beginning of this seven month partnership, enabling Unilever to embed branded content into the MSN.
One Unilever brand being featured on the MSN regionally is Knorr, which it claims to be one of the company’s strongest brands. The content that will be made available on the site include cooking tips for using Knorr products, especially during Ramadan through editorials as well as videos.
With a range of lifestyle content being pulled together from Unilever and other established MSN content partners, this provides a comprehensive and broad content experience for MSN users across the region. Coupled with additional tools such as polls and social media feeds updated in real time, as well as cross-platform accessibility with content being made available across screens and devices, MSN users can enjoy content and the same user experiences wherever they go.
Kinda Ibrahim, editor in chief for MSN Arabia – English says, “Historically Unilever are not one of the biggest spending clients with Microsoft platforms but they were excited about the opportunity of working on such a bespoke content offering with a global, recognized partner such as Microsoft. This initiative in MENA is the first for Unilever globally and is a model that teams worldwide are looking to replicate.”
Ibrahim continues, ” For nearly two decades, MSN has been a place where millions of people go every day to discover and connect with what is important in their lives, whether it is a great article that sparks them to think differently or following their favorite sports team. The revamping of MSN from the ground up for a mobile-first, cloud-first world has profoundly changed how people explore, discover and interact with their favorite content and enabled them to do more and achieve more. Many more people are now able to use any device to easily access integrated content from the world’s best media sources to find out about News, Sports, Money, Travel, Food and Drink, Health and Fitness, and more.”
“We are pleased to be bringing popular brands from the Unilever portfolio to consumers through this exciting and cutting-edge deal with Microsoft’s MSN. Unilever constantly strives to grow the FMCG market with our strong portfolio and large investment across our brands. The partnership with MSN provides an excellent platform to leverage our ‘food’ credentials that is at the heart of our Knorr brand and engage with our target audience in an authentic and relevant way by taking full advantage of the great features presented by the new MSN,” says Ageel Angawi, vice president of marketing, Food, Refreshments and Home Care, Unilever North Africa and Middle East.
“Microsoft and MSN are our key partners globally, and we are pleased to be landing a first ever MENA wide initiative with them. This partnership is strategic, that gives us a good play in content across devices, and above all it provides the reach within the consumers we target,” says Asad ur Rehman, director media, North Africa and Middle East at Unilever.
