MessageMedia Partners With Peppers andRogers Group to Form One-to-One Alliance for Personalized E-Messaging
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- June 23, 1999 -- Bold Partnership Aims to Differentiate and Enhance Online Direct Marketing Campaigns
MessageMedia, Inc. MESG , the leading provider of email-based customer relationship management and direct marketing services, announced it has formed a strategic alliance with relationship marketing thought leaders Peppers and Rogers Group, the pre-eminent customer relationship management consulting firm and creators of the highly successful One-to-One Marketing series. Under the alliance, exclusive in the email arena, both companies will cooperate in a wide range of initiatives aimed at assisting companies with adoption of permission-based, one-to-one email-marketing campaigns.
MessageMedia and Peppers and Rogers Group formed this strategic alliance in response to marketers' demands for strategic online direct marketing and customer relationship management solutions. The partnership's first public activity is an international seminar series, beginning on June 23 in New York. The first seminar, titled "E-Messaging: The Incredibly Effective 1to1 Marketing Tool" features presentations by Martha Rogers, Ph.D., a founder and partner of Peppers and Rogers Group and Larry Jones, president and CEO of MessageMedia. Additional seminars are planned for major cities across the United States and internationally.
"The strategic alliance is one of six powerful alliance partnerships between Peppers and Rogers Group and leading companies whose innovative products and services deliver best-in-breed power tools for builders of the one-to-one enterprise," says Bob Dorf, president of Peppers and Rogers Group. The company's alliance partners include BroadVision, Inc., Chordiant Software, E.piphany Software, Oracle Corporation and Pivotal Software.
In addition to the seminar series, MessageMedia and Peppers and Rogers Group are co-developing an E-Mail University as well as a variety of industry workshops and white papers. Peppers and Rogers Group also plans to develop an "E-Messaging Fieldbook," a treatise that might well have been a chapter on email marketing for Peppers and Rogers Group's latest best-selling book, "The One to One Fieldbook: The Complete Toolkit for Implementing a 1to1 Marketing Program," published in January 1999 by Currency/Doubleday.
"Joining forces with marketing powerhouse Peppers and Rogers Group is exciting for MessageMedia because we share the same mission of helping clients build stronger customer relationships," said Larry Jones, president and CEO of MessageMedia. "We expect our alliance with Peppers and Rogers to enable marketers to strengthen their email and one-to-one marketing initiatives, enhance customer relationships and strengthen the impact of email marketing in the business world."
"We are thrilled at the opportunity to work, partner with, and learn from a leading email service organization like MessageMedia, and launch what we believe will be a powerful relationship that benefits both firms and - more importantly - their clients," says Peppers and Rogers Group president, Bob Dorf. "Used wisely and strategically, with persistent respect for customer privacy, email is one of the most powerful tools in the one-to-one arsenal," he said. "We are proud to add MessageMedia to the short, select roster of Peppers and Rogers Group alliance of industry-leading companies that deliver state-of-the-art one-to-one relationship management tools and solutions."
About Peppers and Rogers Group
Peppers and Rogers Group was founded in 1993 by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. Bob Dorf joined Peppers and Rogers Group shortly thereafter and is now the firm's president. Peppers and Rogers Group is widely respected for its ability to understand and communicate how technology is changing the way companies build relationships with their customers. One-to-one (or "1to1") strategy is based on a bedrock concept: Treat different customers differently. This simple, logical concept has been supercharged in recent years, thanks to the emergence of powerful, reasonably priced new technologies that speed the flow of critical business information and make it possible to mass customize products for individual customers.
Peppers and Rogers Group's clients include 1-800-FLOWERS, American Cancer Society, Bertelsmann, Hewlett-Packard, Prudential Securities and a roster of industry leaders among the most advanced implementers of one-to-one marketing strategies. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in London, Mexico City, and Silicon Valley, Peppers and Rogers Group has more than 100 in total staff and was named to the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies this year.
About MessageMedia Inc.
MessageMedia MESG is the leading provider of email-based customer relationship management and direct marketing services. The Company offers a comprehensive suite of outsource messaging services for information delivery, e-commerce services, permission-based direct marketing and ongoing customer communications using industry standard Internet protocols. MessageMedia's customer portfolio includes clients from the financial services, publishing, direct marketing, retailing and electronic commerce industries. Clients include E*TRADE, USA Today, GeoCities, Intuit, CMP Media, Barclays Bank and Bertelsmann.
SOFTBANK and its affiliates own approximately 49% of the outstanding common stock of MessageMedia Inc. Pequot Capital Management, a Connecticut-based research-intensive investment firm with more than $5 billion in assets under management, is also a major investor in MessageMedia.
"Safe Harbor" Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act: With the exception of the historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. Examples of these forward-looking statements and risks include the ability of the alliance to respond to marketers demands, to develop the materials, seminars, workshops and white papers contemplated by the arrangement, the ability of the alliance to strengthen email initiatives, and the impact of the alliance on email marketing in the business world. Other risk associated with MessageMedia include, but are not limited to, the integration of a new senior management team, MessageMedia's limited operating history, the integration of recent acquisitions, risks associated with pending and future acquisitions, the anticipated fluctuations in operating results, the uncertain acceptance of new services being offered, and undeveloped and rapidly changing market and other risk factors detailed in MessageMedia's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. All companies and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. MessageMedia undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
MessageMedia Inc.
6060 Spine Road, Boulder, Colo. 80301
Phone: (303) 440-7550; Fax: (303) 440-0303; messagemedia.com
|
