America Online Collaboration with Abacus and DoubleClick Redefines Email Database Marketing

DENVER and ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Abacus, the leading provider of data-driven marketing services, and DoubleClick Email Solutions today announced that America Online, Inc's (AOL) Mercuri Database has been selected as the Gold Award Winner in the Technological Applications Category for the National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) Database Excellence Awards. The solution is a comprehensive email marketing database that has revolutionized AOL's ability to create a centralized, controlled flow of communications to its members via the email channel, saving millions of dollars in reduced costs and cutting campaign turnaround time from weeks to days. AOL worked with Abacus to design, build and maintain the Mercuri database, while the partnership with DoubleClick provides the underlying email technology.

Since it went live in 2004, Mercuri has helped AOL satisfy a broad array of business initiatives including the creation of newsletters for customer retention; real time messages for member service events; list based ad hoc campaigns for member retention, notices, up-selling and cross-selling; and pop-up advertising targeted list selection. In 2006 AOL and Abacus will add two new dimensions to the Mercuri solution with the integration of Direct Mail and Telemarketing campaigns.

"The Mercuri database has provided a dramatic increase in our ability to execute effective email campaigns," said Tom Craig, Director, Information Management of America Online, Inc. "Before Mercuri, our email campaigns were less targeted, and we did very little with the collection of promotion history. Through our partnerships with Abacus and DoubleClick Email Solutions, Mercuri has been able to solve each of these issues by letting us know what is being sent, how much is being sent, and what should be sent at the appropriate time. We are honored to accept this award in recognition of this superb combined achievement."

Mercuri has allowed AOL to consolidate all email communications to their customer base across varying objectives, business owners, delivery methods and infrastructures. Results to date include:

* Improved forecast for revenues generated from email campaigns * Reduction in costs associated with shutdown of legacy systems * Reduction in email costs due to aggregation of volumes across the corporation * Promotion tracking across independent campaigns * Reduced campaign turn around time from 3-5 weeks to 3-5 days for many major campaigns

"Abacus is dedicated to making our customers successful by providing the solutions necessary for a flexible, corporate marketing environment, extensible to all channels," said Jeff Lundal, VP, Abacus Advanced Database Services. "The Mercuri project represents a true win for the promises and vision of database marketing by allowing AOL to use email as an effective marketing channel while streamlining processes, cutting costs and decreasing turnaround time. By allowing Abacus to manage the infrastructure, AOL is able to devote its time and resources to managing the marketing."

The NCDM Database Excellence Awards, organized and presented jointly by DIRECT Magazine and The Direct Marketing Association, will be presented at the NCDM Winter 2005 Conference and Exhibition, on December 12-14, 2005 in Orlando, Florida. As the Gold Award winner, AOL and Abacus will be recognized at the awards presentation during the NCDM Database Excellence Awards Luncheon ceremony on Tuesday, December 13 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. ET.

About Abacus

Abacus is the leading provider of cooperative data, data management and analytical services for direct marketing. Abacus provides the insight and capabilities that enable Catalog, Retail and B-to-B marketers to create, build and maintain profitable relationships with their customers, regardless of channel. For more information, please visit http://www.abacus-us.com/

About DoubleClick Email Solutions

DoubleClick E-mail Solutions delivers the most complete and flexible e-mail products and services to more than 400 companies globally. Many of the world's most sophisticated marketing organizations across all industries leverage DoubleClick's world-class technology, constant innovation and unrivalled insight into e-mail marketing to achieve superior results. DoubleClick E-mail Solutions is a recognized leader in the industry, offering its flagship DARTmail service and UnityMail software. E-mail Solutions clients benefit from DoubleClick's comprehensive product and service solutions that enable them to successfully profit from their e-mail marketing investments.

DoubleClick E-mail Solutions is an operating unit of DoubleClick Inc. that together with DoubleClick Digital Advertising Solutions provides agencies, marketers and publishers the ability to successfully profit from their digital marketing investments. DoubleClick has global headquarters in New York City and maintains 21 offices around the world to serve its more than 2000 clients.

About America Online, Inc.

America Online, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate a leading network of Web brands and the largest Internet access subscription service in the United States. Brands include the AOL(r) service, the AOL.com(r) website, and the AIM(r), MapQuest(r), Moviefone(r), Netscape(r), CompuServe(r) and ICQ(r) services. America Online offers a range of digital services including the TotalTalk(r) voice service. The company also has operations in Canada and Europe. America Online, Inc. is based in Dulles, Virginia, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. .

MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Hadden Ogilvy Public Relations 303-634-2633 jennifer.hadden@ogilvypr.com