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Company Press Release
Corporate Profile for AVALON GROUP INC., dated July 18, 1997 *T
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Published Date: July 18, 1997
Company Name: Avalon - Interactive Services, Inc.
Address: 290 1/2 E. Bridge St. P.O. Box 158
Elkader, IA.
Main Telephone
Number: 1-800-207-5480
Internet Home
Page Address
(URL): www.stayhealthy.com
Chief Executive
Officer: Ron Green
Chief Financial
Officer: Sue Green
Investor Relations
Contact: Ron Green
Business number: 1-800-207-5480
Home number: 319-245-1251
e-mail address:
Public Relations
Contact: David Welsh
Business number: 1-800-245-1383
Home number: 319-245-2444
e-mail address:
Trading Symbol/
Exchange: Electronic Bulletin Board AVAL
Industry: Multimedia Publishing, Medical Information Services
Market Makers: Billington Newsletter, www.billingtons.com
Company description: The Avalon Group, Inc. Interactive
Services, Inc. (Avalon) is a digital publishing company. Avalon's
main product is the Wellness Interactive Network(R) - a vast network
of connected, interactive multimedia kiosks which provide
health-related information to the general public. The kiosks will be
installed in 5,000 high traffic retail stores and pharmacies
throughout the U.S. and Canada, with plans to also install kiosks in
hospitals, clinics, group practices, and medium to large companies.
Patients, physicians, and other healthcare providers will utilize the
kiosks as part of their managed care programs as a contribution to
reducing the costs of healthcare through improved patient education.
The kiosks will use touch-screen multimedia computers to deliver a
wide variety of healthcare information that will serve to promote
patient education as part of the managed care process. The kiosks
will be linked via state-of-the-art technologies to be able to
deliver a rich variety of multimedia programs that can be updated,
literally, overnight.
Avalon's sources of revenue are:
-- "site" fees paid to Avalon by the retail stores, hospitals
and companies where the kiosks are installed.
-- "sponsorships" sold by Avalon to local, regional and national
healthcare providers.
-- "advertising space" sold to local, regional and national
advertisers such as pharmaceutical companies, physician specialists,
health foods, fitness equipment, etc.
AVALON'S UNIQUENESS
Other companies have tried various business models using
interactive kiosks supported by advertising revenues. The key is to
attract users to the kiosks and many companies fail to achieve high
usage rates or high audiences. Avalon has found a way to attract
millions of users to these interactive kiosks to ensure that they are
visited daily and that the advertisers/sponsors will be satisfied
that the medium is viewed by a large audience.
Avalon's strategy is relatively simple. Avalon has entered into
an agreement to sell advertising space on an existing network of over
5,000 blood pressure monitor kiosks that are currently located
throughout North America. These kiosks are used daily by hundreds of
thousands of people to check, free of charge, their pulse and/or
blood pressure. The major retail drug chains have found these kiosks
to be a magnet attracting many people to their store who might
otherwise shop elsewhere. This is supported by the fact that
companies like Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc. have these kiosks in all
their stores and pay a monthly "site fee" to the kiosk owners.
By utilizing this existing network, Avalon gains credibility with
the store groups and potential advertisers and will represent a
substantial base from which to begin selling advertising space on the
kiosks. The next step will be to gradually introduce the up-scale
interactive kiosk that will permit for greater advertising revenues
to be achieved by providing more advertising spaces with rich
multimedia capabilities.
Avalon's web site will also attract many visitors, not only
through cross-promotion on the kiosk sites, but also as the result of
a contract with CompuServe. Avalon has been chosen to provide
health-related content to CompuServe's 9 million subscribers from
gateways on the CompuServe home pages that will lead to Avalon's web
site.
AVALON'S STRENGTHS
-- Contractual Relations with Strategic Partners
Contracts with major retail chains such as Walgreens, Rite Aid,
and Wal-Mart, as well as with CompuServe will attract the attention
of the national advertisers.
-- Avalon's Management Team
Avalon has assembled a team of first-rate professionals with
differing backgrounds but all relevant to the individual's tasks.
The team will include:
President & CEO - Ron Green
Ron comes from a background in Education, having taught high
school science and having a B.A. and M.S. in Science Education.
More recently, Ron has been working for four years as a
pharmaceutical specialist with Astra Merck, Inc.
Vice President, Sales & Marketing - Bernard Hicks
Bernard holds a B.A. in Business Studies and has worked in
various marketing positions with Ford Motor Company, British
Petroleum, Johnson & Johnson and as an Account Executive planning
advertising for major healthcare companies including Glaxo, Merck,
Sharp & Dohme, Warner Lambert, Schering-Plough. Bernard has also
operated his own media sales companies in the United Kingdom.
Vice President, Product Development - David Welsh
David graduated from the University of San Francisco with a
B.A.in Communications Arts and holds an M.F.A. degree from Loyola,
Chicago. David founded a TV production company, producing the
celebrated Scene in Chicago for the Chicago cable network. He has
produced and directed numerous plays, commercials and short films,
including documentaries which have appeared on the Public
Broadcasting Service and have won film awards. More recently, David
has worked on a variety of multimedia projects.
-- Response to a Market Need
Avalon's products respond to the need for enhanced patient
education as part of the managed care process. In the U.S., the cost
of providing healthcare has risen to over $1 trillion every year and
health economists predict that disease prevention through improved
health and wellness education could reduce this figure by over $200
billion.
-- Launch Readiness
Over the past 2-3 years, Avalon has raised sufficient funding
from private investors to enable the company to reach a position of
launch readiness. For example, the web site is already live and
receiving an annual rate of 360,000 visitors with no advertisers
(http://www.stayhealthy.com). The blood pressure kiosk agreement
provides over 30,000 placard advertisement spaces that can be sold
now. The hardware/software requirements have been identified for the
new kiosks and a prototype will be completed within the next few
months.
To date, Avalon has raised $800,000 from private placements over
the past two years which has allowed the company to: thoroughly
research the market, develop software and hardware solutions to
design the kiosks, build relationships with retail store groups and
major corporations such as Compuserve, write and produce the health &
wellness educational content, launch a comprehensive web site on the
Internet and develop initial marketing materials.
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Contact:
Avalon Group, Inc. |
