| NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 23 -- In anticipation
of the holiday shopping season, Disney Online today is launching
Main Street Merchants ( www.disney.com/mainstreet
), a virtual shopping center that provides licensees and advertising
partners with new commerce and promotional opportunities reaching
Disney Online's family audience. Similar to Disneyland's legendary
Main Street U.S.A, Main Street Merchants offers both general and
Disney-themed merchandise. The new area is launching with product
lines from premier licensing partners including Disney Home -- a
line of Disney-branded colorful paints, bedding and bath products
for children's rooms; and family-oriented sponsors such as LEGO.
Research backs the company's entrance into third-party commerce on
Disney.com. The site's guests have a proclivity to online commerce.
Seventy three percent of Disney Online guests have made an online
purchase within the last year, compared to the national average of
47 percent (CyberDialogue's American Internet User Study Q2 2001).
In addition, association with Disney positively impacts other brands
and products. In a recent study conducted for Disney Online, 43
percent of interviewees reported that they "feel more
positively about brands or products advertised on Disney.com because
of their association with Disney."
"Main Street Merchants creates an environment where Disney
shoppers can find a breadth of family-oriented products and gives
our advertisers and licensing partners an important new distribution
channel," said Ken Goldstein, executive vice president and
managing director of Disney Online. "We set out to create an
innovative sponsorship opportunity for our advertising partners. I
believe it will be very effective due to the strong halo effect
Disney can offer, as well as the area's tight integration within our
site, which reflects Disney theme park design."
The Main Street Merchants storefront features illustrated icons that
link users to various product categories such as apparel, baby,
home, and toys. Under each product category, links guide guests to
"display windows" that include product samples from each
participating merchant. Visitors can enter individual merchant
stores by clicking on product samples, which are links to merchants'
own e-commerce sites.
"Establishing a relationship with Disney Online provides LEGO a
tremendous opportunity to drive sales with our key target
audience," said Alexander Algermissen, Global Marketing Manager
of LEGO Direct. "Main Street Merchants offers a credible
environment on an extremely popular site."
"Disney.com is a great place to offer LEGO and LEGO online
exclusive merchandise to gain online traffic and exposure,"
added Scott Witt of Organic, Inc., director of online marketing
strategy for LEGO Direct. "When selecting publishers for LEGO's
Q4 online efforts, Disney's Main St. Merchants program was the
digital equivalent of a 'hand-in-glove' marketing initiative."
Main Street Merchants complements Disney Online's existing
e-commerce businesses, including the DisneyStore.com and Disney
Auctions presented by e-Bay. All three are located in the Shopping
neighborhood on the home page of Disney.com.
According to the September 2001 Media Metrix survey, Disney Online
maintains its position as the leader in kids and family online
entertainment. The survey results show that Disney Online generated
nearly 8.4 million unique users in September 2001, reaching 8.6
percent of the web audience. This represents a 47 percent
year-over-year increase.
For further information, please contact: Brandy Phillips of BSMG
Worldwide, +1-310-966-5501, brphillips@webershandwick.com, for
Disney Online.
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