Network Event Theater's Internet Subsidiary to Seek Strategic Partnerships as Part of Premier Website for College Students
BusinessWire, Tuesday, December 15, 1998 at 07:47
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 1998--
--Programs Enable Companies to Directly Market to 15 Million College
Student Market--
Network Event Theater Inc. (NASDAQ:NETS and NETSW) the nation's
largest college campus media and marketing services company today
announced that it its Internet arm, CommonPlaces, LLC, has announced
the availability of integrated partnerships for companies wishing to
tap into the hard-to-reach 15 million college and university student
marketplace. As part of the launch of its Website, which will occur
shortly, the company expects to announce many highly lucrative
business development partnerships and advertising relationships
through a program known as CommonPlaces Internet Partnerships (CPIP).
CPIP enables companies to offer products for sale via four primary
means:
1) the co-branding of an existing Website to match the "look" and
"feel" of the CommonPlaces college site while offering students
e-commerce opportunities throughout, in an environment students
consider "safe";
2) the ability for CommonPlaces to electronically search through a
company's database of products to dynamically match product to
user via integrated text links and special calls-to action on the
site, encouraging purchase;
3) the ability to license CommonPlaces' advanced personalization
technology while utilizing the Company's expertise to build,
operate and maintain a third party's e-commerce based Website as
a stand alone site and as a fully integrated service within the
CommonPlaces site;
4) the ability to offer content and services via an advertiser
supported service within the Company's site, thereby leveraging
Network Event Theater's nationwide sales force.
According to Harlan Peltz, Chairman and CEO of NETS, "In the same
way that Disney (NYSE:DIS) is associated with children, C/NET
(NASDAQ:CNWK) with technology and iVillage with women, we expect to
be associated with college students. Our Internet revenue model
anticipates generating significant eCommerce and advertising revenues
from our captive college student audience. As heads of worldwide
business development and advertising respectively for Lycos, Ben Bassi
and Bill Townsend accounted for 100% of revenues during Lycos' first
three years. I am confident that NETS' significant presence in the
college market and Ben's and Bill's experience as successful pioneers
in the Internet business development and advertising businesses can be
successfully leveraged against the needs of companies to sell and
promote products to the college student market."
Ben Bassi, President and CEO of CommonPlaces said, "During my
career with Lycos (NASDAQ:LCOS) and FireFly (NASDAQ:MSFT), we signed
more than 100 such business development and licensing arrangements
leveraging content, products and services. The ability to tie directly
into the college audience of young consumers, by integrating
functionality from a partner's Website directly to the students'
doorstep, is the most targeted and lucrative opportunity I've ever
seen. Imagine, for a company, the implications of eliminating the
middle step of an ad banner and instead offering student users direct
access to their eCommerce capabilities at our Website. Since students'
will be living within our virtual world and developing tremendous
loyalty to our services, we believe transaction rates will be off the
charts. And with 15 million students projected to make $3.9 billion of
online purchases in 2002, we expect to realize a substantial portion
of those revenues. In the fast-moving Internet world, the winners and
losers will be determined quickly. Since there is no dominant player
in this market and we will have direct access to millions of college
and university students every day through our relationship with NETS,
we are well positioned to be the market leader today."
Bill Townsend, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, said, "I've
overseen the signing of more than 800 integrated content and
advertising contracts over the last three years. That expertise has
led me to fully understand what works and what doesn't. What we bring
to the 18 to 24 year old market is the most finely tuned, total
content integration the Internet has to offer anywhere. It offers
companies like BlueFly (NASDAQ:BFLY), Dell Computer (NASDAQ:DELL),
Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCH) and others the most effective way to reach
out to young adults in the prime years when they determine brand
preferences."
Townsend added, "Since the NET announcement, we've been deluged
with inquiries from more than 80 companies, many of which Ben Bassi
and I have worked with, that want to reach this important and
lucrative market. Most of these discussions involve partnerships
typically calling for integrating content, tools, or applications into
our Website. Under these arrangements, e-commerce transactions would
reside at our partner's site with fulfillment handled by the content
partner or at our site. In order to drive the most benefit for our
partners, most discussions involve exclusivity over a one to five year
term. Based on my experience, this structure provides the greatest
mutual benefit."
*T
Sample areas available in the CPIP program, include:
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Autos & Books Careers, Computer Movies (film
Motorcycles Resumes Equipment and video)
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Entertainment Fashion & Flowers Food: Local Gifts
Clothing and online
ordering
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Health & Magazine Money & Musical News: Local &
Nutrition Subscriptions Investing Instruments National
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Personal Real Estate, Shopping Sports & Travel Content
Care Products Apartments Sports News & Agent Svc.
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Student Product Credit Card Banking Ticket Ordering
Giveaways Sampling Services Services
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*T
Electronic commerce revenues at CommonPlaces are derived
principally from "slotting fees" paid for selective positioning and
promotion within the CommonPlaces Website as well as from royalties
from the sale of goods and services originating at the site.
Additional fees come from advertising sales utilizing the media
space created through strategic partnerships and custom publishing
fees associated with building and operating sites for partners. Both
of these partnerships typically involve integrating a third party's
content or technology into the CommonPlaces Website, providing a new
service for college students and a new marketing vehicle for
advertisers.
About NETS:
NETS is the nation's leading college campus media and marketing
company. NETS is currently comprised of wholly-owned subsidiaries
including American Passage(R), which among other things is the leading
college newspaper advertising placement service, with a reach of more
than 2,000 colleges and universities, and a leader in commercial
postering on college campuses utilizing a national network of more
than 300 representatives; Beyond the Wall(R) the largest four-color
college publication reaching 600 campuses through a 4 million
circulation; Campus Voice(R), a giant editorial wallboard network of
3,400 boards on over 400 campuses with more than 100 million monthly
passers-by; HotStamp(tm), the largest national free postcard
advertising brand that distributes 6 million postcards through 2,000
locations each month.
About CommonPlaces' Management:
Ben Bassi and Bill Townsend, part of the founding management team
at Lycos (NASDAQ:LCOS), the World's fourth largest Internet company,
serve as CEO and Vice President of Sales and Marketing, respectively.
Sean Gaddis, who formerly served as Director of Marketing for Creative
Computers (NASDAQ:MALL) and most recently as Group Product Manager
for Website Marketing at Netscape (NASDAQ:NSCP) overseeing Netcenter,
serves as Vice President of Products and Services. Mark Palmer, who
served as the Director of the Technical Architecture and Management
organization and a principal consultant at Object Design, Inc.
(NASDAQ:ODIS), is the company's Chief Technical Officer. And Greg
Nichols, who most recently served as the Engineering Group Manager and
head of management configuration systems at Bay Networks (NYSE:NT),
is the company's Director of Engineering.
For more information concerning CPIP, contact Bill Townsend, Vice
President of Sales and Marketing for CommonPlaces, at 1-512-261-0761
or bill@commonplaces.com.
Except for the historical information herein, the matters discussed in
this news release are forward looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties, including the timely development and acceptance of
new products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, and
other risks detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports,
including the annual report on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1998 and its most recent quarterly report filed on Form 10Q
for the fiscal first quarter ended September 30, 1998. |
