Avenue A Unveils ``Digital Nirvana'' at Client Summit; Interactive agency shows its top brand marketing clients how to maximize value and profit generated by online marketing.

Business Editors and Technology Writers

Avenue A Client Summit

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2002

Avenue A, an interactive agency and operating unit of Avenue A, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVEA), announced today that it unveiled "Digital Nirvana(TM)," a new competitive approach to online marketing, at its recent client summit.

The concept of Digital Nirvana is achieved when marketers maximize the value and profit generated by online marketing.

"The conventional industry wisdom is that the promise of online advertising has not yet been fulfilled," said Clark Kokich, president of Seattle-based Avenue A. "There are those who still believe that the medium has been unable to deliver on its initial goal of delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time -- and this is simply not the case. Online marketing is proving itself every day as a uniquely powerful medium for driving sales through multiple channels, delivering relevant, high-impact targeted messages, and for building brands both on- and off-line."

For companies to achieve Digital Nirvana they need to do five things very well: 1) use digital marketing to drive sales both online and offline, 2) deliver relevant personalized messages across all digital channels, 3) continuously optimize campaigns based on meaningful metrics, 4) leverage digital marketing to build their brand and 5) exploit the unique creative power of the medium.

Drive sales both offline and online

It's easy to measure online sales impact, but, until recently, it's been difficult to measure offline impact. Research by a variety of sources, including Avenue A, MSN/Unilever and Doubleclick/IRI, has demonstrated conclusively that well-orchestrated online campaigns will drive offline sales. Avenue A was able to prove to one client that for every visitor who makes a purchase on their web site, there are at least 4.6 additional visitors who first research a buy on their site and then proceed to purchase through an offline channel. In addition, new technology that forecasts reach and frequency makes it possible, for the first time ever, to develop a clear picture of online advertising audience reach and to relate and compare the offline impact of online advertising to that of traditional media.

Deliver relevant personalized messages across all digital channels

The Internet is the only medium that allows anonymous user-level targeting. Smart marketers will, at the very least, segment Internet users into customers and non-customers. The smartest marketers will build sophisticated multi-cell predictive models, and then develop a communication strategy for each segment, and employ that strategy consistently through all major digital media.

For example, a current customer should never be shown an acquisition-based promotional offer, but should consistently be shown cross-sell or up-sell messages. Case in point: Avenue A served personalized messages on one client's web site, resulting in a 29% lift in purchases compared to a control group. Avenue A also partnered with the client to include specific brand messages in targeted email to existing customers, driving a 23% lift compared to a control group.

More importantly, personalized messages should be delivered through all of the digital touch points that the customer uses: while surfing the Internet, via e-mail and when visiting the company's web site. By tracking e-mail and serving web media for one client, Avenue A determined that online users who view web media and receive e-mail were 44 percent more likely to purchase compared to those who only received e-mail. Moreover, those users who click on web media and click on e-mail were 91 percent more likely to purchase compared to those who click on e-mail alone.

Optimize aggressively on meaningful metrics

Third-party ad serving allows marketers to focus on the metrics that matter such as sales, registrations, or bookings, as opposed to just click-throughs, which, Avenue A research has proven, are a poor proxy for measuring campaign effectiveness. Once the proper measurements are in place, marketers must establish a formal, disciplined testing strategy and be committed to optimizing campaigns on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Avenue A works with companies to use this methodology, and as a result, typically sees a five to 10 times lift in campaign ROI.

Build brands

Internet advertisers are now using online survey methods to measure the branding impact of their interactive campaigns. This is valuable of course; however the real leverage is to tie those changes in attitudes to changes in consumer behavior. Once you've measured the increase in purchase intent via surveys, the next step is to follow those anonymous consumers through the purchase cycle in order to determine if changes in attitudes relate directly to changes in sales volume. Again, the data captured as part of third-party ad serving provides an opportunity to perform this analysis in a manner not possible in traditional media.

Exploit the creative power of the medium

On the Internet, creativity continues to be limitless. Witness the recent rash of exciting online campaigns based on site takeovers, or innovative campaigns featuring Flash, EyeBlaster, Point Roll and interstitials. Publishers are becoming much more willing to look at unique high-impact ad formats, and most importantly, recent third-party ad serving technology developments will allow serving and tracking of the vast majority of rich media formats. The reality is that the Internet offers a clean palate burdened only by the confines of an advertiser's imagination.

"Digital Nirvana is achievable, thanks to the incredible learning that has taken place in the industry, coupled with recent technology developments that make it possible for marketers to deliver on all these key elements," said Jim Warner, president of Avenue A/NYC. "Companies who have figured out how to unlock the promise of online marketing have a huge competitive advantage in the marketplace."

The Avenue A client summit was held on March 27-29, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was attended by some of the industry's leading brand marketers including Best Buy, Microsoft/MSN, Nike Golf, AstraZeneca, AT&T Wireless, and Weightwatchers.com.

"Meeting with other industry leaders and sharing case study examples that prove each element of Digital Nirvana can, and has been done, is completely invigorating," said Ruby Anik, vice president of media at Best Buy. "Digital Nirvana is something that Best Buy is definitely striving for, and seeing it in action validates the importance of online advertising as a necessary marketing channel."

Echoing her comments was Sara Killeen, marketing manager at Nike Golf, "The Summit was invaluable to me. It's great to hear what works, but more importantly it's great to hear what doesn't work. It's highly productive to be in a session with so many top brands sharing their experiences online, both the successes and the failures."

Avenue A client summits are by invitation only. To request an invitation to the next summit, please send an email to [e-mail].

About Avenue A and Avenue A/NYC:

Avenue A is an interactive agency and operating unit of Avenue A, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVEA). It offers a one-stop solution that drives breakthrough results for their clients' web and e-mail marketing initiatives by using innovative technology and rigorous analytical methods that turn campaign data into actionable insights. Avenue A's integrated suite of services includes web advertising, affiliate programs, search engine optimization, strategic portal relationships, e-mail prospecting, e-mail list management, customer targeting, profiling and advanced analytical services. Founded in 1997, Avenue A focuses on achieving the best possible results and the highest possible return on investment for its clients' digital marketing efforts. Seattle-based Avenue A and Avenue A/NYC clients include Best Buy, Household Finance, L'Oreal USA, Microsoft, and Polo.com/Ralph Lauren Media.

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all passages containing verbs such as 'aims, anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, intends, plans, predicts, projects or targets' or nouns corresponding to such verbs. Forward-looking statements also include any other passages that are primarily relevant to expected future events or that can only be evaluated by events that will occur in the future. The forward-looking statements in this release include, among others, statements about the positive potential of digital marketing on advertisers financial results, the competitive value of the use of online marketing and the beneficial impact of online advertising on branding and offline sales. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the management at the time the statements are made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect Avenue A, Inc.'s actual results include, among others, fluctuating or declining demand for our advertising services, erosion in service pricing, failure to attract new clients, to maintain current, desired client relationships or to achieve effective advertising campaigns for existing clients, deterioration or slower-than-expected development of the Internet advertising market, need for additional funds to finance operations, the need to generate significant additional revenue to achieve profitability, quarterly and seasonal fluctuations in operating results, timing variations on the part of advertisers to implement advertising campaigns, costs related to any possible future acquisitions of technologies or businesses, the short term nature of contracts with clients which are cancelable on 90 days' or less notice, the fact that some of our clients have limited operating histories, are unprofitable and may not be able to pay for our services, and the uncertainties, potential costs, and possible business impacts of unfavorable rulings in previously-announced class action lawsuits. More information about factors that potentially could affect Avenue A, Inc.'s financial results is included in Avenue A, Inc.'s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements that speak only as to the date of this release. Except as required by law, Avenue A, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking or other statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.