Your brand profile lets others know who you are and what kinds of content you publish.
Your brand profile page
You can review your profile page at any time, either by clicking your profile picture on MSN Partner Hub, or by navigating to Settings > Brand on the MSPH dashboard. Changes to the brand profile settings will affect all content published under this brand.
Brand naming conventions
All brand names must be unique and less than 50 characters. This uniqueness must be global on MSN, not just within individual countries.
MSN respects official brand names on their domains. However, if you need to add market, region, language edition, or other details to the official brand name to differentiate your brands on MSN, you must align with MSN's guidelines.
By following our guidelines, please ensure that your brand names are clear, unique, and easily identifiable across different markets and languages.
Differentiation by location, language, and vertical
- If the same brand is offered in multiple locations (markets/regions/cities) and/or languages, add the location and/or language to differentiate it.
- Vertical names are generally not required as adding a feed should consolidate all vertical brands into one brand. However, if necessary, you can add the vertical name at the end of the brand name.
Naming format
- Format: "Brand name + Location + (Language) + - Vertical"
- Example: Contoso US (Spanish) - Video
Naming conventions
If your brand name is not unique to our audiences, follow this order of priority:
- Add location, market/region/city just after the brand name.
- Add language in parentheses after the brand name or location.
- Add a vertical name with a hyphen if necessary at the end of the name.
Detailed definitions:
- Location: Add the location name without any symbols after the brand name. Location can be written in the local language. If the state follows the region name, you can abbreviate the state with a comma.
- Examples: Contoso México, Contoso Washington D.C, Contoso Morristown, NJ.
- Language: Add the language in parentheses after the brand name. Language can be written in the local language.
- Examples: Contoso (français), Contoso (English).
- Vertical (Genre Name): Add the vertical name with a hyphen at the end. MSN has preferred vertical names. Please follow the guidelines below.
- Example: Contoso - Games, Contoso News – Video.
- Combination: If your brand name includes a location, language, and vertical, combine them.
- Example: Contoso Canada (French) - Video.
Vertical naming rules
Please adhere to the following guidelines when naming verticals:
- Preferred: Video, Games, Entertainment, News, Sports, Autos, Health, Lifestyle, Weather.
- Not preferred: Videos, VIDEO, video, Gaming, Game, Ent, Car, and any other abbreviation such as Ent for Entertainment, RE for Real Estate, etc.
Exception: If your brand name includes a vertical name, you do not need to change the format. Local language is acceptable for location, language, and vertical names.
Brand profile tab
The Profile tab allows you to:
- Set your Profile name. There is a limit of 50 characters.
- Enter a Description of your brand, such as what topics you cover or a short blurb about yourself, up to 280 words in plaintext, no special characters or symbols.
- Upload the Profile picture you would like to use to identify your brand, such as a logo or headshot, in .png, .jpg, or .jpg format, at least 448 x 448 pixels.
Navigate to the Content tab to specify whether your brand's content is local news (you can add up to ten locations covered by your news posts), set the location of your target audience if desired, and choose how stories will display on your profile.
The Privacy tab has settings to allow you to clear all your content and data from MSN Partner Hub and clear all your activity and data in the Microsoft News community.
All changes to brand profiles must be approved by the MSN Partner Hub moderation team before going live.
- Profiles that pass moderation will automatically be published.
- If your profile doesn’t pass moderation for any reason you will need to address any flagged issues and resubmit for approval.
Review can take up to 24 hours and no changes may be made to your brand profile until moderation approval. You can read more in the Publishing guidelines section of this guide.
Have questions? Contact us at PartnerHubSupport@microsoft.com
