Backwire and DoubleClick Form Partnership to Integrate Backwire's One-to-One Customization Technology With DARTMail Publisher

NEW YORK & ALEXANDRIA, Va, 12/20/00 - Backwire, a leading publisher of customized email newsletters and developer of one-to-one customization technologies, and DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK), the leading global Internet advertising solutions company, today announced a partnership to begin trials of Backwire's patent-pending one-to-one technology with DARTmail Publisher.

As part of the partnership, DoubleClick will license Backwire's one-to-one customization technology and make it available to select DARTmail Publisher clients. In addition, Backwire will begin using DoubleClick 's DARTmail Publisher technology, the industry's most robust email ad serving solution, to deliver its email newsletters.

Backwire's one-to-one customization technology, which was unveiled in the third quarter of 2000, is an innovative system that enables publishers and marketers to generate fully customized content, commerce and advertising.

The system makes sophisticated use of explicit subscriber preferences, interests and lifestyle information to achieve and maintain a trusted one-to-one channel, enabling users of the system to function as intelligent content, commerce and advertising advocates.

This unique technology has been instrumental in enabling Backwire to offer its three million email newsletter subscribers a completely unique combination of content, commerce and advertising, selected from millions of possible combinations.

DoubleClick will license the one-to-one customization technology for the purpose of integrating the technology into its DARTmail Publisher service for use by select customers.

"Email marketing has quickly become an important part of the marketing mix for advertisers looking to efficiently reach their customers on a one-to one basis," said Court Cunningham, Vice President of DARTmail Technology. "Backwire's one-to-one content targeting technology will give DARTmail customers access to a unique new method of targeting to improve the performance of their newsletters in generating ad revenue and driving visitors to their site."

In addition to the licensing agreement, Backwire left a competitive email marketing solution to sign a multi-year agreement with DoubleClick to use DARTmail Publisher, the industry's most robust email ad serving solution, to deliver Backwire's 32 personalized email newsletters to its three million opt-in subscribers.

DARTmail Publisher employs the industry standard DART technology to serve dynamically targeted adds into text and HTML email, deliver and report on highly customized messages and provide publishers with an unsurpassed scaleable system. Since its launch in October, DARTmail has quickly scaled to deliver over 90 million emails a month on behalf of an expanding list of over 60 customers.

"Backwire is excited to be partnering with DoubleClick as we roll out the licensing of our patent-pending technology for email, wireless, broadband and web customers. For many years, publishers and marketers have dreamed of the day when they could send the right message to the right person on the right device at the right time. Our unique data customization technology allows that dream to be fulfilled, " said Jeb Spencer, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Backwire.

About DoubleClick Inc.
DoubleClick Inc. (http://www.doubleclick.net) is a leading provider of comprehensive global Internet advertising solutions for marketers and Web publishers. Combining technology, media and data expertise, DoubleClick centralizes planning, execution, control, tracking and reporting for online media campaigns. DoubleClick Inc. has Global headquarters in New York City and maintains over 40 offices around the world.

ABOUT BACKWIRE
Backwire (http://www.backwire.com), a leading e-marketing company, has developed a proprietary customization technology to deliver one-to-one content, commerce and advertising via electronic messaging. The first of its kind, Backwire's patent-pending system aggregates consumer preferences, behavior and demographic data and intelligently matches content, commerce and advertising to specific consumers.

With three million subscribers to its opt-in email service, Backwire has grown to become one of the largest permission-based marketers since second-generation Internet executives founded the company in January 2000. Subscribers register to receive email publications in 32 popular lifestyle categories such as Health & Fitness, Travel, Personal Finance, Food & Wine, Entertainment, and Internet & Technology.

In addition to its technology, Backwire has a team of seasoned editors with experience from media organizations such as MSNBC, Sports Illustrated and Forbes who spend more than 750 hours each week aggregating the best in-depth content from 1,000 brand-name sites from Red Herring to Martha Stewart Living.

Backwire investors include Internet.com Ventures (NasdaqNM: INTM), PSINet Ventures, Five Paces Ventures, Greenspring Ventures, Robinson Humphrey, SAC Capital, Schoffstall Ventures, and Technology Ventures

Credits: Press Release Network