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Bertelsmann & Lycos Europe Partnership
In Lycos' early days of expansion, it opened
several joint ventures overseas to expand the reach and brand of
Lycos. Bertelsmann funded and controls one of the joint ventures,
Lycos Europe. With the increased focus on online dating communities
in the new century, Matchmaker, a Lycos, Inc. owned property, was
being considered as a premium dating service for Lycos Europe.
After a long negotiation process we came to an
agreement with placement, advertising and revenue sharing. After
the contract was signed I began to implement the deal points and
create an advertising partnership, expanding the reach of Matchmaker.com
and providing Lycos Europe with a premium dating service for it's
users.
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Functionality
Before Matchmaker was launched
into international markets it had to be localized
for each region.
New Communities:
We identified which markets contained
the most internet users and had the highest acceptance
of online dating as a means to meet people. After
extensive research, we launched the France, Germany,
Spain, and Italy communities. UK and Ireland were
already in existence.
Translations:
Matchmaker was then coded to
include language support for each new language of
the market we were focusing on. Spanish was launched
immediately, followed by French, German, and Italian.
In order to provide the best user experience, British
English was also added as a translation option.
The site was developed to be independent of language.
This meant that no matter which community you joined
you could view the site in any of the offered languages.
Currency:
The final part of functionality
was to begin accepting foreign currencies as well
as US dollars. The shift if the EU to the Euro made
this slightly easier since we only had to add Pounds
and Euros to our currency options.
These changes made the site more
representative of a local service offering to each
new region. This increased the overall acceptance
of the Matchmaker brand into these regions.
Advertising
The cornerstone to a new campaign
launch is the advertising. Lycos Europe planned three
major sections for their advertising campaign, links,
banners, and e-mail blasts.
Ad Placement:
Banners were scheduled to run
on sections of Lycos Europe properties localized
for the language of each region where they run.
Matchmaker is billed as the premium
dating service offering to Lycos Europe users. Also
included in the advertising are e-mail blasts, and
a link in the left nav bar for Matchmaker.
Banners and Premium dating links
include tracking information which no only records
the location of where the matchmaker traffic originates
but also calls the Lycos Europe header to appear
at the top of each Matchmaker page for users who
originate in Lycos Europe.
In order to record and report
on all of the promotions for Lycos Europe a real
time reporting system was developed and launched.
This reporting system provided Lycos Europe with
up to the day information on each aspect of their
campaigns
Functionality:
The Reporting systems provided
reports on the revenue, new users, paid users,
conversion rates, total unique visitors to the
site and registration rates.
All of this information and functionality
of this partnership provided Lycos Europe with a
premium dating service platform and increased revenue.
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Screen Shots
Click on the screen shots for a larger
image
New Communities Splash
Pages
Translations
Currencies
Banner Placements
Lycos Europe Header
Lycos Europe Reporting
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