MSN Enlists Agency Stars To Wow Web Advertising.

LOOKING TO GIVE online ads the same cachet as TV spots, MSN is issuing a "friendly challenge" to three traditional creative directors at major ad agencies to create a groundbreaking online campaign for one of their clients.

Last week, MSN said that it has given Deutsch managing partner/ecd Kathy Delaney, Wieden + Kennedy creative director Ty Montague and Crispin Porter + Bogusky executive creative director Alex Bogusky free rein to do with premium MSN inventory what they want this fall. The clients are still being determined.

"We're going to give them a blank slate... and say, 'If you could do anything, what would you do?'" said Eric Hadley, MSN's director-marketing, adding that MSN's technology gurus will help make the visions a reality.

"I hope what it does is encourage other traditional agency creatives to rethink the Internet. A lot of them until now have rejected it or treated it as second best," said Montague, who works on Nike and ESPN, among others, at Wieden in New York.

Delaney viewed the effort as a challenge. "It allows us to delve into a medium that we love and really, really stretch the boundaries and not have any handcuffs on us," she said.

MSN is not the only one pushing agencies to create water-cooler-worthy Web work. Yahoo! recently wrapped its seventh Creative Summit Series--a roving conference promoting online creativity.

"We [need] a medium in which great advertising is welcomed and we have to help educate the people who make great advertising," said Jerry Shereshewsky, ambassador plenipotentiary to Madison Avenue at Yahoo!

PHOTO (COLOR): Reputation online: Deutsch's Delaney.

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By Ann Mack