Engage Joins Angara's Online Targeting Network

Engage Inc a results-oriented online marketing company and majority-owned operating company of CMGI Inc, and Angara, a leading provider of online marketing services, announced a strategic alliance that will provide ecommerce sites with the tools and services to personalize Web site content based on the user-interest and behavioral information of unknown and firsttime visitors.

As part of the relationship, Engage will provide anonymous user-interest recommendation data derived from Engage Knowledge, a database of 70 million anonymous online profiles, to Angara for use with its hosted customer conversion services. In addition, Engage and Angara will launch a co-marketing program through which the companies will promote their complementary products and services to current and future customers.

One of the key issues facing online marketers today is the high number of first-time visitors that arrive at a Web site and leave before moving beyond the homepage. By targeting product offers and content to these anonymous visitors, Angara's online marketing services help solve this problem by improving the relevancy of Web sites and increasing customer conversion rates. Inferences taken from anonymous behavioral data contained within Engage profiles and Angara's online targeting network provide e-businesses with broader insights into their Web site visitors and enable companies to refine their Web site content to more targeted user groups. Furthermore, no data from Engage or Angara will be combined at any time.

"This agreement allows us to demonstrate the flexibility of Engage Knowledge to improve marketers' analytical and e-commerce efforts through both targeted advertising and content, and is a testament to the proven effectiveness of the database," said Paul Schaut, president and CEO of Engage. "The combination of Angara's innovative e-marketing services and recommendations on user-interest derived from Engage Knowledge, provides e-businesses with a powerful solution for delivering Web site content that is relevant and promotes customer acquisition and retention."

"Angara is committed to working with best-of-breed providers of behavioral and demographic information to create the most comprehensive database of anonymous profiles and providing our customers with solutions that help convert browsers into buyers," said Mark Metcalfe, president and CEO of Angara. "User interest recommendations from Engage Knowledge are the perfect complement to our demographic and geographic targeting as well as analysis capabilities. Now our customers can deliver the precise content that appeals to each individual visitor segment."

The anonymous online profiles in Engage Knowledge contain rich, dynamic behavioral data that is processed based on: type of content viewed, the time spent viewing as well as the frequency and recency of visits to a particular interest category or site ­ all of which are based on 800 interest categories. To maintain consumer privacy, the profiles contain no sensitive data or personally identifiable information, such as names, addresses, social security numbers or e-mail addresses.

"Engage and Angara are dedicated to providing e-businesses with online marketing solutions that provide a significant return on investment while maintaining consumer privacy," said Dan Jaye, CTO and co-founder of Engage. "This relationship aligns perfectly with the strong commitment that has been made by both companies to protect the privacy of consumers."

Engage and Angara will continue to work closely with a number of privacy organizations to help with the development of guidelines for personalized online marketing practices. Engage is a member of several pro-privacy organizations, including the Network Advertising Initiative ( www.networkadvertising.org ). In addition, Angara recently announced the hiring of a chief privacy officer and is an active member of leading privacy organizations including the Personalization Consortium ( www.personalization.org ) and the Online Privacy Alliance ( www.privacyalliance.org ), the latter of which Engage is also involved in.

Contact Sara Nicole Combs, GCGi, 617-451-0021 x10, scombs@gcgpr.com.