With Over 100,000,000 Gown Images Viewed Since January 2001, Bridal Businesses Capitalize on Match-Made-in-Heaven Audience Searching for the Perfect Gown on The Knot NEW YORK (APRIL 27, 2001) - When the owners of Kleinfeld, the nation's oldest and largest upscale bridal salon, recently advertised a designer sample sale on The Knot (NASDAQ: KNOT; www.theknot.com; AOL Keyword: weddings), the nation's leading wedding resource, hundreds of brides came crashing through their doors, proving that online advertising does work with the right equation: Like Kleinfeld's Mara Urshel, hundreds of the nation's local bridal salon owners and gown designers are flocking to advertise on The Knot through its suite of outreach programs including direct email, banners, advertorials and the groundbreaking Bridal Salon Referral Program (BSRP), which lists participants in The Knot's premier Wedding Gown Search and its collection of national and local print publications that are circulated twice a year to over a million brides across the country. In just five years, The Knot, a 2001 Webby Award nominee for best site in the "Living" category, has revolutionized the way bridal fashion marketers are reaching out to brides on the voracious hunt for the perfect gown. Through multi-layered, targeted marketing tactics specifically tailored for bridal fashion businesses, advertisers can promote a variety of their designer lines year-round in multiple media outlets at a price that virtually any business can afford. With 1.6 million registered members who have viewed over 100,000,000 gown images on The Knot since January 2001 alone -- that's more gowns viewed than in all of the leading bridal magazines combined - - the bridal industry's top designers, including Carolina Herrera and Reem Acra, and thousands of bridal salons agree that the exposure of their fashions on The Knot is unparalleled -- and surprisingly affordable. In fact, for just $250 a month, gown salons are listing the dresses they carry on The Knot's award-winning website and in The Knot Wedding Gowns magazine, the all-inclusive wedding-wear bible distributed nationally by The Knot. Considering that traditional advertising can cost up to $400,000, this is a minimal price to pay for larger bridal businesses looking to enhance the reach of their current advertising programs, and is a door wide-open for thousands of smaller retailers who have never before been able to afford mass-market advertising to an audience as large as The Knot's. "Over the past three years, The Knot has been a great branding tool for our company," said Amy Golan, marketing director for Carolina Herrera Ltd. "It has allowed us to display our bridal collection to the multitude of brides that use the Internet as part of their wedding gown search." "I swear by The Knot!" said Yolanda, owner of Yolanda Couture Enterprises. "Many of the brides who call our showroom have found our dresses on The Knot. And, the fact that they can use the site to research styles and locations where our gowns are sold beforehand helps our local sales significantly." "The Knot is absolutely generating business for us," said Mara Urshel, president of Kleinfeld. "Since we've begun advertising on The Knot, we have seen an unbelievable increase in brides booking appointments, not only from the New York area but from across the country. We've even had brides come in because another bride on The Knot emailed them. Every bridal salon should invest in marketing their name and inventory on The Knot!" "By connecting bridal salons with our members through our affordable targeted advertising programs, we've shown that online advertising can be the most effective outreach method for businesses with a qualified and targeted consumer base," explained David Liu, co-founder and CEO of The Knot. "Time and again, the response from our advertisers has been overwhelmingly positive and has, subsequently, reinforced our own success in helping brides have the weddings of their dreams." About The Knot The Knot (NASDAQ: KNOT; www.theknot.com; AOL keyword: weddings) is the leading online wedding destination and the premier wedding content provider on America Online, several other of AOL's leading brands, and MSN. Combining comprehensive content and an active community with wedding-related commerce, The Knot provides extensive resources to help couples plan their wedding and future lives together as a couple. The Knot also offers a diverse collection of wedding-planning print publications. The Knot publishes the national Wedding Gowns magazine semiannually, and, through its subsidiary Weddingpages, Inc., publishes Weddingpages, regional wedding magazines that reach over 50 U.S. cities. In addition, the Company publishes a three-book wedding-planning series with Random House's Broadway Books. The Knot is based in New York and has several other offices across the country. This press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company. These statements are only predictions and reflect the current beliefs and expectations of the Company. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein include, without limitation, (i) The Knot's unproven business model and limited operating history, (ii) The Knot's history of losses and expectation of significant losses for the foreseeable future, (iii) the significant fluctuation to which The Knot's quarterly revenues and operating results are subject, (iv) the seasonality of the wedding industry and (v) other factors detailed in documents the Company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Media Contact: Amy Shey Associate Public Relations Manager The Knot Inc. 212.219.8555 x1246 ashey@theknot.com |
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