"When respected leaders like Safeway, one of the largest supermarket chains in North America, join forces with us, it reinforces that the future of interactive and addressable television advertising is here."
Long term product development of advertiser enhancements such as the interactive television experience, email, and other advertiser applications are services under development within the next generation of advanced set-top boxes.
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Safeway Joins AT&T BIS' New Media Alliance To Advance Advertising Applications
04:50 p.m Sep 21, 1999 Eastern
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Safeway, Inc. announced today that it has joined AT&T Broadband & Internet Services' (AT&T BIS) New Media Alliance group as the only supermarket partner to explore new strategic advertising and marketing programs, including the upcoming testing of interactive and addressable advertising applications on AT&T Cable Services' digital platform.
Safeway joins Dominos, Ford, J. Walter Thompson, Kraft Foods, and other key participants in the Alliance group, to explore interactive advertiser applications that will be available through upcoming two-way interactive cable technologies. Several applications and possibilities are currently being developed including advertising where viewers can use a remote control to obtain additional information about a product or service. Safeway will also participate in cross-promotional activity with AT&T BIS, including highly targeted direct marketing programs, to drive brand awareness and visibility with cable customers.
"The relationship with AT&T Broadband & Internet Services allows us to test a number of different technologies to determine which ones help us connect directly with 'real' consumers," said Gary Smith, Safeway's senior vice president of marketing. "It's a great opportunity for us to experiment today with new broadband technologies that might not be available to the general public for a few "When respected leaders like Safeway, one of the largest supermarket chains in North America, join forces with us, it reinforces that the future of interactive and addressable television advertising is here."
Long term product development of advertiser enhancements such as the interactive television experience, email, and other advertiser applications are services under development within the next generation of advanced set-top boxes. more years."
"Collaboration with innovative national consumer-focused companies will ensure that the products we develop for digital broadband advertising add value for both the advertiser and the consumer," said Jerry Machovina, executive vice president of AT&T Media Services for AT&T BIS. AT&T BIS is currently using its first generation set-top box to deploy AT&T Digital Cable to its cable systems across the country. AT&T Digital Cable is a technological evolution in TV entertainment that offers viewers advanced services and additional channels through digital compression technology. AT&T BIS currently serves over 1.4 million Digital Cable customers.
Under the agreement, Safeway will explore this new advertising opportunity on AT&T BIS systems in leading markets across the country for the next two years. These markets include San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; and Portland, OR.
Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) is one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America based on annual sales. The company currently operates 1,656 stores in the United States and Canada, and currently has approximately 182,000 employees. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.
AT&T Broadband & Internet Services is one of the nation's leading providers of video and broadband data services. Formerly known as Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) prior to the Company's recent merger with AT&T, AT&T Broadband & Internet Services is a business unit of AT&T that provides cable television entertainment and information programming services to more than 10 million customers across the country. The Company also provides a host of advanced services through AT&T Digital Cable offerings and its high-speed, content-enriched cable Internet service AT&T@Home, and is actively developing competitive local cable telephone services. AT&T Broadband & Internet Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T), the world's leader in telecommunications services and technology. SOURCE AT&T Broadband & Internet Services
(Voluntary Disclosure: Position- Long; ST Rating- Strong Buy; LT Rating- Strong Buy) |
