Microsoft Network is attempting to rejuvenate a flagging online advertising sector by setting up a pan-European online media planning facility to encourage corporate advertising on the portal.

The MSN Media Centre will enable advertisers to plan online European-wide campaigns by supplying them demographic data to target surfers, and hopefully provide an incentive to spend more on online marketing.

"The idea is to provide advertisers planning information at their fingertips," said Matt Whittingham, UK business marketing manager at MSN, and provide them with tools other than banner advertising to devise campaigns.

"Banner ads are not the only things out there. We also hope to encourage online branding and the distribution of retail content," he said.

Information available will range from case studies of other advertisers on the portal, to demographic data such as age, gender and occupation of the target audience. The data will be provided by researcher Nielsen.

Mr Whittingham said the site would eventually enable advertisers to tailor campaigns across each of the 33 European countries and 17 languages in which MSN operates.

The MSN Media Centre will go live in the UK from March 12 and will mirror a similar initiative launched in the US in April last year.