P&G Expands Web Partnership with Women.com

Women.com Networks, Inc. and The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) announced today the expansion of their current partnership in two areas. Under the new agreement, Women.com will incorporate P&G”s ParentTime.com property into its Web network. In addition, the enhanced partnership will enable Women.com to develop unique marketing programs for P&G”s beauty care and home care business segments. The agreement is valued at more than $15 million.

Three years ago, Women.com and P&G began working together to meet the needs of women online. The partnership developed new ways to market to women including content sponsorship, product promotion and advertising. P&G also utilized Women.com”s unique in house research capabilities to better understand women online.

“By continually growing our relationship with one of the world”s largest advertisers, P&G, we are setting new standards for online marketing,” said Lillian Gilden, vice president, strategic alliances, Women.com. “Our collaborative approach is based on a deep understanding of our clients” brand objectives and marketing imperatives and our history of delivering a huge audience of women online.”

“Our partnership with Women.com allows us to leverage our in-depth consumer understanding, marketing know-how and trusted brands. We are able to combine our core competencies with Women.com to create experiences that showcase the quality of our products in a useful, highly-customized format,” said Mark Schar, vice president iVentures, Procter & Gamble.

An interactive resource providing comprehensive, personalized information on raising children, ParentTime.com is a diverse and growing online community for families on the Web. The site was previously jointly-owned by P&G and Time Warner.

“P&G learned a tremendous amount about online consumers and content development through our experience with ParentTime,” commented Buddy Tucker, associate director of interactive media at P&G. “Incorporating the ParentTime property into Women.com will allow P&G to recover our investment and focus on developing marketing programs that will be relevant and beneficial to our consumers.”

The broadened alliance between P&G and Women.com is the latest in a series of moves by the two groups. For example, there is a multi-year beauty care sponsorship, featuring the Beautiful You mini-site on Women.com (http://www.women.com/beautifulyou/login.html), highlighting nine of P&G’s products, including Oil of Olay, Cover Girl and Pantene. Most recently, Women.com and P&G have collaborated on a Home Care sponsorship, featuring the Home Made Simple mini-site (http://www.women.com/homemadesimple), showcasing P&G brands such as Cascade, Dawn, Febreze and Mr. Clean by providing lifestyle tips from the living room to the backyard. The site also features “Open House,” a multi-media feature that looks inside the real life homes of women with diverse lifestyles.

“Women are projected to generate $41 billion in online sales in 2003,” said Marleen McDaniel, chairman and CEO, Women.com. “We are regularly experimenting with different marketing models in an effort to make their experiences online highly relevant and enable them to make informed decisions.”