Forbes.com Launches Sprint-Sponsored Special Section

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The newly merged Sprint Nextel is the sole sponsor of a Forbes.com special editorial section launched this week. The "Communicating" report includes contributions from futurist and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, broadcast news veteran Walter Cronkite, Ogilvy & Mather CEO Shelley Lazarus, and New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki.

The one-time special section features articles, interviews, audio, video and interactive elements from more than 20 guest authors and experts. Every page of the report will feature a "Sprint, together with Nextel" sponsorship logo, as well as banners and skyscraper ads on each content page and the section page. The sponsorship logo links to a landing page on Sprint.com detailing ways Sprint can help business.

Some of the skyscrapers and banners link to a lead-generation form on Sprint.com where business users can enter to win 10 wireless email devices and a year of service from Sprint. Others link to a co-branded Forbes.com/Sprint "resource center" with Sprint case studies, forums, online demos and commercials.

Creative on the B2B ads, from Publicis Hal Riney, ties in with Sprint Nextel's "Reinventing the Yes Man" consumer-focused branding campaign, which launched in September. Creative for that campaign was developed by two Omnicom units: Organic and TBWA/Chiat/Day's Tequila.

Forbes has occasionally launched new sections of its Web site with a single sponsor in the past. Both its "Infoimaging" and "Intelligent Infrastructure" sections launched with a single sponsor, but now show ads from multiple advertisers, according to a Forbes.com spokesperson.

"We've tried to explore all of the different ways that we communicate -- with other people, with animals, with machines, with the past, with the future, and even with aliens," said Michael Noer, Forbes.com's executive editor for news.