Association for Interactive Media and Unica Corporation Announce Winner & Runner-Up of Industry's 1st Personalization Excellence Awards.

Business Editors

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2001

GE Medical Systems Campaign Earns Top Spot, Followed by Mercedes Benz 

Association for Interactive Media and Unica Corporation today announced GE Medical Systems as the winner of the first AIM/Unica Personalization Excellence Awards, honoring companies leading the industry in implementing personalized marketing and services for their customers.

Mercedes Benz/Critical Mass was honored as runner-up during the awards ceremony at AIM Interact: 2001, AIM's annual meeting being held at the Westin Innisbrook Resort in Tampa.

The AIM/Unica award is the first in the industry to recognize how customer loyalty and satisfaction can be impacted by successfully balancing personalization with best practices in protecting consumer privacy.

"GE Medical Systems' campaign was selected because it was one of the few, out of the more than 25 submissions, that recruited customer feedback before launching personalization efforts, catering specifically to customer concerns," said Ben Isaacson, executive director of AIM, who served as an awards judge with Yankee Group Vice President of Internet & Media Research Kevin Noonan and Gartner Group Vice President & Research Director for CRM Scott Nelson. "Along with increasing the number of customers and improving customer loyalty, GE looked at the bigger picture of personalization and detailed in its entry the security mechanisms used to protect customer data."

"Mercedes Benz/Critical Mass earned a close second with a campaign that successfully created brand value for consumers, while not alienating their third-party retailers. The key to this was starting with the consumers' concerns, then designing the site with their perspective in mind," said Nelson.

"GE Medical Systems leveraged the true power of the Internet by optimizing both the revenue opportunities and the saving opportunities of the Web. The savings model was achieved through the customer service aspect of distributing information via the Web, while the digital marketing campaign served to increase future revenues of their product line," Noonan said of the selection process.

AIM and Unica Corporation developed the Personalization Excellence Awards program as a way to highlight the best practices of the interactive industry. By establishing a balance between personalization and protecting customer privacy, this fast-developing industry is providing tangible benefits for both consumers and marketers.

"GE Medical Systems clearly showed how they overcame the exceptional challenge of selling major medical equipment on the Web without neglecting to explain their campaign's data security features," said Carol Meyers, vice president of marketing for Unica Corporation. "Unica and AIM's goal in developing this program is to recognize and challenge marketing leaders to provide working models for companies striving to balance privacy and personalization. We hope to build on the success of this first year by seeing campaigns submitted in 2002 that describe more measurement techniques and ROI data that fully demonstrate the business benefits of adopting these best practices."

AIM Interact: 2001 is a high-level forum at which industry leaders discuss the most pressing issues and opportunities, share successes and challenges and make valuable connections with peers. For further information about AIM or the event visit www.interactivehq.org.

About AIM

The Association for Interactive Media (AIM) is the largest trade association in the world devoted to helping companies that use the Internet and interactive media to reach their respective marketplaces with maximum effectiveness. AIM, an independent subsidiary of the Direct Marketing Association, serves diverse corporate interests from e-mail marketing, e-tailing, online marketing, content provision, e-commerce, market research, broadband access and the rollout of interactive television.

AIM is a member-driven association that strives to serve its membership in a variety of ways: 1) as a community in which member companies can achieve their goals through information, education, leadership forums, networking opportunities and public relations support; 2) as a builder of consumer and business confidence in e-commerce and in new technologies, with specific attention to the areas of privacy, security and public trust; and 3) as an advocate for the interactive business industries in the halls of government specifically on the federal level, AIM works to promote industry self-regulation and to enhance working relationships with legislators.

About Unica

Unica, a provider of award-winning analytical CRM and marketing automation solutions, helps leading businesses implement one-to-one customer interaction strategies that communicate the right message to the right person at the right time -- whatever the channel. Affinium, Unica's modular, cross-channel marketing suite, delivers deep functionality for data mining and predictive modeling, customer interaction and campaign management, reporting and real-time personalization. Hundreds of companies worldwide rely on Unica's software, services and expertise to build profitable customer relationships and achieve marketing success. Headquartered in Lincoln, Mass., Unica is privately held with offices throughout the United States and a network of distribution partners in Europe, South Africa and South America. Its customers include Lands' End, Bank of Montreal, Fingerhut, ABN AMRO, United Parcel Service, Marriott, Scotiabank, Merck-Medco and AOL-Aadvantage. For more information, call 781/259-5900 or visit www.unicacorp.com.