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Austin, TX – May 22, 2006 – Powered, Inc., the leading
provider of online consumer education for Global 2000 brands, today
announced that it has surpassed 5 million consumer enrollments for
its online education programs. Powered programs have driven nearly
80 million consumers to its clients’ sites and Powered has
doubled its growth in each of the past two years. Companies including
Atkins, BusinessWeek, Gateway, HP, iVillage, Sony, and
P&G are currently using Powered’s pioneering consumer
education programs to provide consumers with rich online learning
experiences that increase sales, improve brand loyalty, and deliver
new insights into consumer attitudes and buying behavior.
Powered credits its ongoing success with the surge of interest
in non-traditional marketing vehicles. "Consumers now access
a huge range of tools to screen out marketing messages they do not
want," said Dave Ellett, Chairman and CEO of Powered. "Some
studies suggest as many as two-thirds of consumers feel advertising
overload, intrusion, and irrelevance. Online education programs
give brands a new permission-based way to connect with consumers
by delivering something of value: informative and relevant educational
content."
“Today’s online consumers are sophisticated and savvy,
and they are looking to engage with brands on their own terms,”
said Sarah Fay, president of Isobar U.S. “Powered lets brands
sponsor educational and entertaining experiences that turn enrollees
into buyers.”
Today, Powered also released research from Next Century Media showing
that consumer education produces a powerful "gratitude effect,"
significantly increasing product sales and enhancing the relationship
between a consumer and the brand or products they buy. Key findings
include:
- Consumers who complete courses are 29 times more likely to buy
the sponsor’s products compared to traditional media advertising;
- Consumers who participated in online education programs are
5 times more likely to buy the sponsor's products compared to
direct marketing;
- 20% of consumers will purchase a product as a result of their
experience;
- 97% of students are satisfied with the experience;
- 90% are likely to recommend the experience to a friend;
- 94% have a more favorable perception of the brand because of
the experience.
"True sponsorship on the Internet produces a far greater persuasion
effect than a 30 second TV commercial," stated Bill Harvey,
CEO of Next Century Media and author of Consumer Education Produces
High ROI. "We credit this to a form of subconscious or
conscious “gratitude” - rather than intruding on the
consumer’s attention with an unwanted sales pitch, the sponsor
provides a gift of content with no strings attached. We posited
– and the numbers proved – that online consumer education
programs show a very high persuasion effect, far surpassing direct
marketing and traditional media buys."
In addition to providing a marketing ROI that far surpasses any
other program, online consumer education provides a win-win situation
for marketers and consumers. A recent series of Powered courses
on iVillage, sponsored by Sony, attracted consumers eager to learn
about such topics as digital photography, scrapbooking, and keeping
kids safe on the Internet. But more importantly, 90% of students
said they would enroll in another course, and 91% would recommend
a course to a friend.
Powered turns online education programs into a customer-centric
marketing interaction by incorporating opt-in, merchandising, analytics,
and surveys into educational experiences. All programs are hosted
by Powered on its patent-pending technology platform that integrates
content management, product catalogs, a merchandising engine, reporting
and analytics, and online communities. Marketers using Powered can
now quickly increase sales conversion, gain new insights into customer
behavior and attitudes, and significantly improve the overall impression
of their brand. ROI is quantifiable and rapid, and is typically
recognized within 3-4 months from program start.
For Manufacturers and Retailers: Powered works
with Global 2000 brands to create relevant and informative education
programs that help to drive purchase behavior, create an ongoing
permission-based relationship, and better understand the end consumer.
Programs are designed, created, managed, and hosted by Powered.
For Publishers: Powered partners with publishers
to use educational content as a premium advertising product. Advertisers
sponsor these online experiences to start opt-in relationships with
highly targeted, highly involved consumers.
Key components of both Powered solutions include:
- Best Practices: Powered clients gain immediate
access to an extensive library of best practices based on tens
of millions of consumers served. These practices cover program
strategy, content development, user experience design and program
management.
- Marketing Services: A dedicated Powered team
works closely with each client to determine the services they
need to successfully run their online education programs. Available
services include content creation, design, instructors, contextual
merchandising, key performance indicators, and custom development
or integration.
- Turnkey Technology: Powered's patent-pending
platform is designed for speed to market without compromising
scalability and flexibility. Open APIs ensure total configurability.
About Powered, Inc.
Austin-based Powered, Inc. is the market and technology leader in
online consumer education. Powered provides a proven way for the
world’s largest brands to use online education to drive sales,
build brand loyalty and deliver a significantly higher ROI than
other marketing programs. Manufacturers, retailers, media properties
and web publishers also rely on Powered to gain new insights into
consumer attitudes and buying behavior. Powered clients include
Atkins, BusinessWeek, Gateway, HP, P&G, and Sony among
others. For more information, visit www.powered.com.
Powered is a trademark of Powered, Inc. All other
company and product names mentioned are used only for identification
and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.
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