The CBS MarketWatch EVP of Sales and Marketing talks about recent changes to the site.

Last week, CBS MarketWatch launched a new front door to the site. In terms of design and usability, the changes are subtle tweaks rather than a full-scale relaunch. The site is now 25% wider, with added above-the-fold placements for site content, and there is no longer an external ad banner across the top of the home page.

I reached out to Scot McLernon, CBS MarketWatch's EVP of Sales and Marketing to learn more about the strategy behind the changes. 

iMedia: What prompted the redesign?

McLernon: To start with, it was time. We hadn't done anything major with the site in about three years, and we had been gathering user feedback as well as advertiser feedback for that entire period of time. As we continued to add more and more comprehensive business news content to the site, our users were telling us that things were getting harder to find. The new front page teases our special editorial sections, with sky boxes at the top. And all new video and audio content is conveniently delivered in one place on the home page. It's important to focus on video in particular, because we always had it but weren't merchandising it well enough. We're big believers in the future possibilities of video and its importance in the online media mix. As for advertisers, many of our clients have stressed the importance of bigger, more impactful ad positions. The full page 10-second introductory message that we created a while back was a start. Having a large rectangle on the front page is another direct result of their feedback.

iMedia: What does the new design offer brands and marketers that the old design didn't?  Another way of asking the same question is what features of the old design weren't achieving the results you desired?

McLernon: The old design worked for several years. But, as I mentioned earlier, we're now able to offer a much larger rich media advertising unit (250x300) on our front page. The ability for marketers to usher in the site with our introductory message, and then potentially own the home page with another related large impactful ad is quite powerful. Our front page is one of our greatest assets in terms of reach. And, the video possibilities are exciting as well. I believe our clients will be much more motivated to purchase spots before and after our video clips. We were thrilled to launch the new video with two major brands, Xerox and J&J.

iMedia: When a visitor first clicks to CBS MarketWatch they are greeted with an interstitial ad than then resolves into a leaderboard banner. Do registered members also see the interstitial? 

McLernon: Yes, that's the introductory message for all to see. Everyone coming to the site through the front page will see this interstitial once per day. It is frequency capped at 1x.

iMedia: To me, a surprising thing about the new front door is how much you've limited outside banner space. Now, the only above-the-fold outside ad is the leader board that -- near as I can tell -- comes from the same company as the interstitial ad. You're focusing more on CBS MarketWatch content on the front door. Has that driven up the price tag and increased performance for the interstitial and leader board?

McLernon: The interstitial (or intro-message) partnered with the front page ad units has been a hit since we launched it. There's always been strong demand for it, and I'd offer that the price is commensurate with the value of the placement. Not all advertisers purchase both the intro-message and the rich media window, but most do. It's a powerful roadblock that has been purchased and renewed by some of the best known brands in the world -- my guess is that it's well worth its price.

iMedia: If a visitor enters a stock symbol into the Quote/News box at the upper-left corner of the page and hits enter, the resulting page has a sponsored watermark in the background. When I visited this morning the sponsor was Jeep. Is this a new feature? And do you plan to roll it out elsewhere on CBS MarketWatch? Any complaints from users about the watermark?

McLernon: Actually, what we refer to as wallpaper was first introduced about five years ago and didn't really catch on. We ran it with a few tech clients at the time. It must have been ahead of its time because we re-launched it again about three years ago as part of our well-received launch of Anheuser-Busch on the site. The timing for a big day-part branding campaign on the Web was perfect, and to do it with A-B was terrific for us as well as the industry. They ran the relatively well-remembered "bottle pour" campaign for a year in the Friday happy hour day-part, and ran wallpaper as well. As you noticed, the unit is still there, and we limit it to the quote pages. I now see it on a few other sites -- it must be catching on.

iMedia: The front door has a slick new roll-over feature for a video explanation of the redesign by Susan McGinnis, but visitors cannot roll-over to play the video or audio on the TV & RADIO page. Any plans to incorporate that feature on other pages later?

McLernon: We monitor that ad unit closely to make sure that users don't mind the rollover, and to make sure they get used to how it works. Glad you noticed the Susan McGinnis spot. We had fun producing that clip. And yes, were discussing how and if we should feature that on all video players.

iMedia: The press release about the new front door said that other features are expected to roll out in the near future. What are they and on what timeline?

McLernon: Still a little early for that one -- there is some good stuff planned and we'll be sure to let you know as soon as possible.

Scot McLernon is the executive vice president for sales and marketing at CBS MarketWatch. You can read his bio here.