Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- New Media Company Offers Captive Audience to Advertisers; Captivate to Deliver Daily Traffic of 20 Million Business Professionals

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New Media Company Offers Captive Audience to Advertisers; Captivate to Deliver Daily Traffic of 20 Million Business Professionals

Business Wire - May 31, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2000

Advertisers now have a new, innovative medium to target business people during the workday. Captivate Network, Inc., a new media company, is bringing Internet content and advertising to elevators of high rise office towers in major metropolitan markets across the country. Captivate installs high resolution, flat panel l0- or 12-inch silent screens in elevators and delivers local, national and international news, stock market quotes, weather and traffic reports on the top of the screen and advertising messages on the lower portion. Among the first advertisers to sign up with Captivate Network are Allied Riser Communications, 3 Com Corporation, The Wang Center, and Pivotal Corporation.

Last month, Captivate Network signed a major distribution agreement with ten of the country's largest office property real estate companies. With this agreement, and others to be announced, Captivate will be the exclusive provider of screens for at least ten years in more than 500 trophy office towers in over 25 major U.S. cities. Captivate is positioned to have as much as 80 percent market share in several of its target cities. When the Captivate Network is fully deployed, it will reach more than 3 million business professionals every day - as often as 6-8 times a day.

"Our agreements with major property owners guarantee that Captivate will be the dominant player in this emerging medium," said Captivate President Michael DiFranza. "These blue chip companies deliver one third of the most desirable high rise office towers in America. Independent research shows that the profile of the tenants who work in these buildings is 25-54, average annual income of $91,000, 93 percent with college degrees, and 76 percent in professional positions - with instant Internet access in their office. Forty nine percent of tenants are financial services firms, and about 20 percent are major law firms."

"Advertisers and media buyers historically have divided the day into `day-parts', but ironically, it has been virtually impossible to reach business people during the workday. Now, it's not only possible, but Captivate creates an uncluttered, high efficiency medium. We now think of 8:30 am to 6 pm day-part as `Captivate Time'," DiFranza continued.

Advertising content stays on the screen for ten seconds and appears 84 times per day, 588 times per week for a frequency total of 2,352 times per month. Captivate says that passengers see each advertisement an average of four times per week. This means that Captivate provides both reach and frequency. And advertisers have the flexibility to buy specific geographies or the entire national network.

Using wireless technology, Captivate delivers advertising and Internet content to elevator passengers in such American landmarks as New York's One and Two Penn Plaza, Chicago's Sears Tower and The Mercantile Exchange, San Francisco's Embarcadero Center and Bank of America Center, Boston's Prudential Center, Los Angeles' Wilshire Courtyard and hundreds of other Class A office towers. Additional cities slated for Captivate installations later this year include Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Washington, D. C., and another 15 cities to follow in 2001.

"Captivate demonstrates three very important elements of media effectiveness: capture a targeted audience, deliver clean and simple creative, and, most of all, reach your target close to the point of use. What better environment than an elevator, where the audience now has something to look at?" commented Tim Davies, Vice President, Group Media Director, Arnold Communications.

Captivate has programming partnership agreements with major media companies including The New York Times, Reuters, The Boston Globe (boston.com), Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, Tribune Media Services, CitySearch, AccuWeather, SmarTraveler, TrafficStation, and new content providers are constantly being added. Captivate's programming department selects material from its content providers, and creates 10-second screens, branded with the content partner's logo or web site address.

The Intelligent Building Server (TM) retrieves information specific to its building to create the onscreen programming. The programming is then delivered to elevator screens via patented wireless local area network technology. In addition to Internet content and advertising, Captivate's unique ScreenCenter(TM) messaging capability enables managers to communicate building-specific announcements directly to tenants and to easily update those messages.

"Tenants really appreciate this service," commented DiFranza. "We recently received a nearly 90 percent positive rating from viewers, and comments such as `I wish the elevator ride were longer'!"

Privately held Captivate Network, Inc., (www.captivatenetwork.com) was founded in October 1997 by Michael DiFranza, Todd Newville and Ray Pineau. Current venture capital investors include ABS Capital Partners, Advent International, Olympic Venture Partners, Primus Venture Partners, Inc., and AEW Capital Management. In addition, several of the REITs that signed exclusive agreements with Captivate have invested $28 million in the company. Captivate is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and currently employs 95 people, with plans to expand to 150 by year-end.

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