Daily Connect

MSN and BermanBraun Interactive today announced the beta launch of their much- anticipated site Wonderwall (https://www.wonderwall.com), an innovative entertainment and celebrity content destination. Wonderwall offers people an engaging and visually dynamic perspective on the day’s hottest pop culture stories, personalities and trends.

The Wall utilizes horizontal scrolling that emulates the feeling of flipping through a favorite magazine. Filled with the latest celebrity information, photos, videos and features, Wonderwall.com presents its topics with an authentic and smart attitude, using a bold and inventive new design featuring a wall of photos and graphics.

Alex Blagg, former founding editor of VH1’s “Best Week Ever” blog, has been tapped as lead editor of Wonderwall. Blagg brings with him award-winning experience from VH1, where he won two consecutive Webby awards for Best Celebrity/Fan Site. Blagg has also been a featured panelist on FOX News and Sirius Satellite Radio, and his writing has appeared in many online and print publications, including The Huffington Post, Spin magazine and Gawker.com.

“Wonderwall offers a clever, thought-provoking and amusing voice to fans of celebrity and is a great addition to MSN’s portfolio of entertainment content,” said Rob Bennett, general manager of Network Programming for MSN. “Partnering with BermanBraun helps us deliver this unique experience and original and refreshing perspective. We believe Wonderwall will strike a chord with people that will have them laughing out loud and coming back for more.”

Eighty-four percent of people on the Internet in the U.S. visit an entertainment site every month, making the entertainment category one of the most popular categories, over social networking, games, travel, news/information, or even retail online sites.(1) The entertainment gossip category continues to grow rapidly, increasing 14 percent in the last year alone.(2) Entertainment fans also spend the most time online of any other category.(3) Today, entertainment is among the most popular content on MSN along with news and sports, and interest continues to increase. MSN will offer Wonderwall in conjunction with its current MSN Entertainment offering, which already receives more than 19 million unique users every month.(4)

“We saw an exciting opportunity to aggregate and program MSN’s celebrity/pop culture content in a dynamic and visually arresting way,” BermanBraun partners Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun said in a joint statement. “We are thrilled to work with MSN in bringing our new online destination to its vast audience and advertising partners.”

Wonderwall is accessible at https://www.wonderwall.com, as well as through the MSN home page and in editorial programming across the MSN network, including MSN Entertainment. Through Wonderwall’s partnership with MediaVest, major brands such as Kraft-Crystal Light have signed up as initial advertisers.