MIVA, THE PIONEERS OF PAY-PER-CALL, SET UK LAUNCH DATE
MIVA PAY-PER-CALL TO LAUNCH ON 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF PAY-PER-CLICK IN THE UK
REVOLUTIONARY NEW ADVERTISING MEDIUM CONNECTS INTERNET USERS WITH ADVERTISERS OVER THE PHONE
London, 18 August 2005. MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIVA), the leading independent Performance Marketing Network, today announced that it will launch its pioneering MIVA Pay-Per-Call* Ad service in the UK on September 13th. MIVA is launching Pay-Per-Call on the 5th anniversary of MIVA's launch of Pay-Per-Click in the UK. Advertisers are able to sign-up for a MIVA Pay-Per-Call Ad account in advance of the launch from Wednesday August 17th.
Pay-Per-Call allows advertisers to create ads and distribute them across MIVA's network of partner websites. Inserted into each ad is a Freephone number that the Internet user calls to be connected directly to the advertiser. The UK launch follows the successful launch in the US, where MIVA were the first to introduce the model to the market in September 2004.
Key facts on MIVA Pay-Per-Call:
- Advertisers connect with consumers via a phone call, a proven method of closing business. Kelsey Group research shows that inbound phone calls have an average conversion rate of 40%**.
- Advertisers can target the growing audience of online consumers and search engine users without requiring anything more than a telephone, while only being charged for the phone calls that MIVA delivers.
- Online publishers in the MIVA Network can display Pay-Per-Call listings in addition to Pay-Per-Click listings, offering their users the choice between making purchases online or over the phone.
- MIVA media agency partners for the launch include I-Level, Starcom, MGOMD, Media.Com, Diffiniti, All Response Media, The Search Works and Latitude.
"Consumers understand and feel comfortable with making purchases over the telephone" commented Pete Robins, Director of Media.Com. "Even in the most advanced markets, there are still a number of consumers who are reluctant to make purchases online. Pay-Per-Call will remove barriers within the sales process by giving consumers a choice of how they want to make their purchases, and providing advertisers more control over the sales process."
"Pay-Per-Call has the potential to revolutionise the advertising market, just as Pay-Per-Click has done" commented Seb Bishop, Chief Marketing Officer, MIVA, Inc. "On September 13 - five years to the day that we launched Pay-Per-Click in the UK - we will launch an online advertising product with the potential to service a much wider audience of advertisers than Pay-Per-Click does today. The fact that businesses can target their ads by locality opens the door for the hundreds of thousands of local businesses in the UK to take advantage of performance marketing online."
Of the 3.2 million small and medium sized businesses in the UK, 2.7 million are without a web presence (source: UK NAO). Estimates from the Kelsey Group predict that Pay-Per-Call advertising in the UK could exceed £600 million by 2009, and be worth US$4bn worldwide by the same year***.
"Now both online and offline advertisers in the UK will be able to connect with Internet users through a performance based advertising model" commented Mike Kerans, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Pay-Per-Call, MIVA, Inc.
How it works:
- Advertisers bid on categories, rather than individual keywords, relevant to their business to target their ads to Internet users.
- In a similar way to MIVA's popular Pay-Per-Click Ads, advertisers determine the position of their Pay-Per-Call Ads by bidding in an auction on relevant categories. The higher they bid, the higher their ad is listed. Advertisers only pay when a user calls the Freephone number. The minimum bid amount is £2.00. If a consumer makes a second call back to an advertiser on the same Freephone number within 10 days, that advertiser will not be charged for the call a second time.
- Advertisers choose their target geographic area, either locality, city, county and/or national.
- MIVA Pay-Per-Call Ads are targeted to specific times of the day, so advertisers are able to set their ads to only appear when they can accept phone-calls.
- Inserted into each ad is a dynamically generated Freephone telephone number that, when dialled by a potential customer who views the ad, forwards the customer directly to the advertiser's existing business telephone.
- MIVA targets those ads to users who are searching for products and services across the MIVA network.
To view a demo of how Pay-Per-Call works, please go to http://www.miva.com / uk / content / advertiser / pay_per_call_demo.asp.
www.miva.com
Notes to Editor
* Pay-Per-Call is a trademark of Ingenio, Inc.
** Kelsey "Calls, Clicks & SMEs" (2005) research shows an average 40% conversion rate for inbound calls from IYP sites.
*** Kelsey "Calls, Clicks & SMEs" (2005) research predicts that Pay-Per-Call could be worth US$4bn by 2009
About MIVAŽ, Inc.
MIVA is the leading independent Performance Marketing Network, dedicated exclusively to helping businesses grow. MIVA connects millions of buyers with sellers at exactly the right place and time. MIVA delivers qualified leads to advertisers, helps maximise revenue for publisher partners, facilitates commerce for online merchants and provides relevant information to customers. The Company has relationships with more than 100,000 customers, spanning North America, Europe and Asia.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words or expressions such as "plan," "intend," "believe" or "expect" or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements including without limitation (1) our ability to successfully execute upon our corporate strategies, (2) our ability to develop and successfully market new products and services, (3) the ability of our products to increase sales conversions for advertisers or website monetization for publishers, and (4) the potential acceptance of new products in the market. Additional key risks are described in MIVA's reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K/A for fiscal 2004, and the most recently filed quarterly report on Form 10-Q. MIVA undertakes no obligation to update the information contained herein.
