Insyde Technology: News: Press Releases: TURN ON MEDIA UNVEILS FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND INTERACTIVE MARKETING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE A FIRST IMPRESSION AND INCREASE LIFETIME CUSTOMER VALUE

TURN ON MEDIA UNVEILS FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND INTERACTIVE MARKETING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE A FIRST IMPRESSION AND INCREASE LIFETIME CUSTOMER VALUE

New Technology, Launched at @d:tech New York, Breaks Through the Attention Barrier to Give Marketers and Advertisers the Ultimate Message Location

New York, NY, December 4, 2001 - Turn On Media™ (www.turnonmedia.com) announced today from @d:tech, the leading event for interactive advertising and marketing, the debut of its interactive marketing technology, also called Turn On Media. Developed for marketers looking to maximize customer loyalty and increase lifetime customer value through brand awareness, direct marketing and engaging content, the first-of-its-kind product provides a unique, patent-pending branding and direct response communication channel between companies, brands and their customers every time those customers turn on their PCs – even before Windows loads. Clients, both b-to-b and b-to-c, can employ opt-in methods to ensure that only those customers interested in receiving the First Impression full-screen messages will receive them on their computers at boot up, based on their preferences. Uses for Turn On Media include advertising, sponsorships, direct marketing promotions, music and movie trailers, affinity programs and internal corporate communications.

Turn On Media allows companies to capture the attention of their customers at an otherwise idle viewing period – at the moment they turn on their PCs – and break through the clutter of competing messages. Every time they turn on their computers, a full-screen brand message appears. With just one keystroke, these messages can automatically launch a related Web page or media player, providing a deeper brand and communication experience between Turn On Media clients and their customers.

"We created this new interactive marketing technology from our deep experience in developing the BIOS firmware for PCs and Internet-access Devices that enables computers to boot up," explained Turn On Media President and CEO Jonathan Joseph. "Not surprisingly, our new offering is quickly capturing the attention of savvy marketers because it offers the flexibility of interactive marketing, the branding power of print and broadcast media without the size and content limitations of banners and email marketing, and a new, patent-pending and unavoidable location for message delivery.

"Research conducted on our behalf by Bentley College revealed that consumers are tiring of overloaded email inboxes and ubiquitous banner ads, and resent the unwelcome intrusion of interstitial pop-up messages," continued Joseph. "When shown a Turn On Media demonstration, 81% of these respondents were very positive about viewing messages, particularly if they could indicate their preferences. Turn On Media satisfied the consumers' desire for control of their viewing experience (75% positive response) while providing marketers with the ultimate location to enhance customer loyalty and increase sales."

According to Forrester Research, traditional U.S. companies will spend $21 billion annually by 2006 on digital marketing – multifaceted marketing campaigns that integrate online advertising, promotions and e-mail strategies. As traditional advertisers learn that online advertising is just the first stage of a campaign, they will augment budgets for later-cycle activities like promotions and email.

Earlier this year, Turn On Media was chosen to be showcased within Bentley College's Center for Marketing Technology, used as a teaching facility for students and some of the world's leading companies to train future leaders on the latest innovations in business and technology. According to Perry Lowe, professor of marketing at Bentley, and a special advisor to the College's president, "Turn On Media is a must-have for marketers in the Digital Economy. When shown this technology, marketing students and business leaders alike are impressed by the originality of the software and broad applicability it offers to organizations that want to move beyond banner ads to truly embrace digital marketing."

According to Byron White, CEO and founder of lifetips.com, a community of 500+ sites offering guru tips and links, weekly newsletters, book and product recommendations, chat and 24/7 access to gurus, and charter Turn On Media customer, "Turn On Media provides us with a unique digital marketing tool to creatively remind our 130,000 members to return to our site daily for the kind of insightful and useful tips they have come to rely on lifetips.com to deliver. We believe that Turn On Media will be a valuable partner for lifetips.com by helping us to not only drive traffic to our site, but to enable us to increase loyalty and foster long-term customer relationships that will in turn help us to drive maximum revenue."

How Turn On Media Works

Turn On Media enables its clients to deliver messages to their customers' Windows-based PCs through the use of a custom media player. The Turn On Media player is distributed to customers by email, CD or through a Web site, and must be loaded onto the individual customer's PC. Once loaded, each time customers turn on their PCs, full-screen messages are displayed. New content is served to them over the Internet by the Turn On Media server discreetly in the background, without effecting their Internet experience. Customers can either elect to click on a link located within the message, which in turn takes them to a related Web page where they can view additional information, or make purchases, or hit escape and return to their computer boot up process. Marketers are given their own private access to the Web-based Turn On Media Campaign Manager to create and schedule campaigns and access performance reports.

Availability & Pricing

Turn On Media is available immediately and on a worldwide basis through the company by calling 508.366.6175. Pricing is based on the number of messages displayed during a set period of time via the Turn On Media server. For messages containing an e-commerce element, a percentage of revenue directly attributable to the Turn On Media experience is also paid to Turn On Media.

Based in Westborough, Mass., Turn On Media develops interactive marketing technology for marketers and advertisers with an established customer base looking to maximize loyalty and increase lifetime customer value through brand awareness, direct marketing and engaging content. Its debut Turn On Media technology allows its clients to deliver full-screen interactive messages at an otherwise idle viewing period, each time they turn on their computer, before Windows loads. Established in 2000, Turn On Media is a business unit of Insyde Software, Inc. (www.insydesw.com), a leading global provider of system software and consulting services for companies in the semiconductor, Internet-access device, PC and telecommunications industries. Founded in 1998, Insyde Software customers include Hewlett-Packard, National Semiconductor, Nokia, Philips and Sony.

Turn On Media and Insyde are trademarks of Insyde Software. Other company and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.