Unique opportunity for advertisers

October 4th 2001: Tesco.com today announces that the iVillage UK and Tesco.com sales teams have merged. The iVillage sales team will now be responsible for all Tesco.com advertising sales. iVillage.co.uk is a joint venture between Tesco and the US' leading destination for women online, iVillage.com.

This combining of forces is a natural next step for the iVillage and Tesco joint venture, combining both companies' strengths and streamlining resources. Tesco.com will benefit from iVillage's technical and online sales expertise and the venture will see both companies exploiting their online reach and customer loyalty. The business has been moved from incumbent eSpace, which will retain Tesco.Net.

This joint sales effort is great news for advertisers, allowing for highly targeted advertising through smart online packages. Tesco.com, with over a million users per month, is currently the only online grocery site that allows FMCGs to advertise at the point of purchase, with a click-through to buy. iVillage.co.uk, the UK's leading website for women with over 500,000 monthly unique visitors, offers marketers the chance to reach a valuable sector of the online audience. Currently women account for the majority of the nearly 5 million online shoppers in the UK, according to NOP.

The iVillage/Tesco.com sales team will now offer a number of advertising packages across both sites, with 'joint packages' exploiting the strengths of each. This is especially powerful given that the sites share the same user profile - an 80% female bias - thereby providing maximum value by allowing advertisers to tap into each audience.

The joint venture means additional unique opportunities for advertisers - special offers and themed-promotions that highlight content and campaigns on iVillage.co.uk, such as the Shape Up Challenge, a healthy living and well-being programme. A recent promotion by The Times newspaper meant that every customer to place a Tesco.com order within a period of one week received a free copy of the newspaper with their delivery.

John Browett, CEO of Tesco.com comments: "As a leading online retailer, Tesco.com's grocery advertising accounts for 98% of Tesco.com's online advertising revenue as we provide a unique opportunity for FMCG brands online. The merger with the iVillage.co.uk sales team is the natural next step for our partnership, and combines the key strengths of our expertise and operations."

Phil Rooke, CEO of iVillage.co.uk comments: "This is an evolution in advertising. iVillage and Tesco.com's combination of massive reach, direct purchase ability, and fantastic brand building is unmatched by any other kind of advertising. I believe we can now offer marketers a more effective solution than has ever been offered, online or off."