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MySpace has drafted in Rebekah Horne as managing director for Europe to oversee the social network's biggest redesign since its launch four years ago, Revolution can reveal.

Horne will start at MySpace's European headquarters this month (October), having previously led MySpace in Australia and New Zealand as general manager of Fox Interactive Media.

The former Warner Music marketing director will be responsible for boosting MySpace's growth across Europe and heading leadership teams across the Continent.

"We've not really undergone radical change for four years," said Anthony Lukom, managing director of MySpace UK. "When we launched, we defined social networks, and we want to do that again. Before the end of the year, there will be a new look for MySpace."

Prior to the relaunch, MySpace intends to roll out 'HyperTargeting', the social network's new money-making initiative - an ad-targeting system that enables brands to target MySpace users based on their specific interests, as well as their demographic profiles.

"You might be a fan of an action film and four rom-coms, but rival systems will target you on the basis of the action film," said Lukom. "Our system will take that into consideration as well as the four rom-com films, and establish that you are not necessarily a big action-film fan."

HyperTargeting can also establish whether users' friends have similar interests and even how passionate members are about their interests. The system is applicable across all interests - almost anything users make public through their profile page.

In the US, 40 per cent of campaigns already use HyperTargeting. MySpace UK has been tailoring the system for the UK market, and will launch trials with brand advertisers this month.

"There's a lot of talk about how users respond to advertising, but we're not an ISP - we're using information that people are making public on their profiles," said Lukom. "Users understand that they can't get everything for free and that advertising gives them the things that they want."

While Facebook and YouTube are yet to demonstrate their money-making credentials, MySpace has multiple revenue streams. The biggest deal was a search partnership with Google, valued at $900 million (£456m).

INDUSTRY JURY GIVES ITS VERDICT

- Caroline McGuckian, Global head of media, LBi

The fact that MySpace is attempting to minimise the irrelevance of advertising on its site is valiant. If an average consumer likes Nike and sees a lot of Nike ads, they are unlikely to think much of it; tell them they are seeing the ads because they have publicly stated their affinity for Nike, and there's a good chance they will feel violated. The success or otherwise of HyperTargeting is likely to hang on how MySpace handles the press, and its quality control on brands.

But MySpace should be worrying less about making dollars and more about keeping users. It looks two generations too old, and the ads stick out like sore thumbs.

MySpace also isn't addressing the fact that advertisers are wary of the safety of their environments. If it puts its efforts into developing technology that ensures brands won't appear against dodgy profiles, then advertisers just might spend more.

- Matthew Dodd, Vice-president of research and analytics, Nielsen Online

MySpace is sitting on a gold mine of user-generated information and has the ability to analyse this data on the fly and give brands the opportunity to have a dialogue with members.

Digital relevancy - the ability to target relevant messages based on user preferences - is the key. Just look at the response rates that Blyk is able to achieve - an average of 29 per cent on mobile messaging campaigns. The ability to do this on a much bigger scale on MySpace is very exciting.

Given its demographic, MySpace can give advertisers the opportunity to target people approaching certain 'life stage events', such as their first car purchase.

The litmus test will be for MySpace to demonstrate the benefits of 'micro' messaging (most of its communication is still based on the mass) to ensure that the message really does hit the sweet spot.