Jeff Brunings, USWeb/CKS Corporation, 408-986-6721 or
[email protected]
USWeb/CKS Helps Clients Differentiate Products and Strengthen Brands
Clients include Levi Strauss & Co., VarsityBooks.com, Die Welt, Furniture.com, Sunbank and Go Network
SANTA CLARA, California - January 25, 1999 - USWeb/CKS Corporation (Nasdaq: USWB) today announced key client initiatives that reflect the company's ability to help clients differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace, enhance business efficiencies, and strengthen customer relationships. USWeb/CKS projects recently completed or in development include solutions for Levi Strauss & Co., Die Welt, VarsityBooks.com, Furniture.com, SunBank, and Go Network, an Internet portal developed by The Walt Disney Company and InfoSeek.
"In the fourth quarter, USWeb/CKS completed significant e-commerce and branding solutions that helped improve our clients' ability to differentiate themselves and leverage technology to increase competitive position in the marketplace," said Toby Corey, president and COO, USWeb/CKS. "Increasingly, USWeb/CKS solutions are enabling our clients to keep pace with the rapid change driven by the digital economy, and meet core business objectives by capitalizing on new opportunities presented by the Internet."
USWeb/CKS recently helped Levi Strauss & Co. launch e-retailing initiatives by providing strategic, creative and technical capabilities necessary for building http:// www.levi.com/ and http:// www.dockers.com /. Exclusively featuring Levi� and Dockers� brand apparel, the sites reflect Levi Strauss & Co.'s debut in providing e-retailing services to consumers. To help differentiate Levi Strauss & Co.'s e-commerce services and strengthen its brand, USWeb/CKS integrated personalization and customization features to enhance the customer's online purchasing experience.
USWeb/CKS fully redesigned the e-commerce site for VarsityBooks.com, a leading online seller of discounted college textbooks. Providing strategy and development services, USWeb/CKS constructed a robust technical architecture and interface for http:// www.varsitybooks.com/, a site helping students save time and money when buying college textbooks. The project included the deployment of a new, robust e-commerce platform, the integration of e-commerce services with existing business systems, real-time ordering and tracking, and enhanced inventory management controls.
The Germany office of USWeb/CKS recently completed an online job listing solution for Die Welt, one of Germany's largest daily newspapers. Representing the benefits of integrating strategy, Internet technologies and marketing communications, the Die Welt solution reflects the breadth of USWeb/CKS services. From a technical perspective, the project included custom database development, front-end design, and application management. USWeb/CKS also created television, print and online advertising campaigns to market and brand Die Welt's online job listing service. Featured at http:// www.berufswelt.de/, the site is the first of its kind for a German daily newspaper and provides Die Welt a differentiable service to help build its customer base.
For InfoSeek, USWeb/CKS is working to help establish the brand identity and name of GO Network, a new Internet portal featured at Go.com. Unlike typical search-specific sites, GO Network is a true media portal blending Infoseek's superior search capabilities with leading branded content, such as ABC News and Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney's family-oriented news and entertainment. In addition to helping develop the GO Network logo and brand identity guidelines, USWeb/CKS has been intimately involved in the development of brand positioning, and is currently working with GO Network to launch a comprehensive television, print, outdoor and promotional communications campaign.
Also developed last quarter was a new site for Furniture.com, a leading e-commerce company in the $178 billion U.S. furniture and home furnishings market. Offering a selection of over 50,000 items, http:// www.furniture.com/ includes features based on personalization and customization that build and strengthen relationships with customers. A few of these features are an online showroom where customers aggregate selections being considered for purchase, and the ability to search for furniture based on room, piece, style, manufacturer and price range.
"USWeb/CKS helped Furniture.com create an online experience that is superior to traditional furniture shopping," said Andrew L. Brooks, president and CEO of Furniture.com. "Our mission is to be the most enjoyable furniture shopping experience, and creating the best online user experience is a critical step in reinforcing our leadership position in furniture e-commerce."
In the UK, USWeb/CKS has been working with Sunbank, the UK banking arm of the Sun Life of Canada Group. Representing over 60,000 deposit and loan accounts in the UK, and holding �460 million in customer deposits, Sunbank approached USWeb/CKS to assist in the development of an Internet strategy to support branding initiatives. During Q4 of 1998, USWeb/CKS initiated a multi-phase online strategy that includes the development of online banking services. ted by the Internet."
About USWeb/CKS
USWeb/CKS (Nasdaq: USWB) is a professional services firm that works with clients to define strategies and implement innovative ways to build their businesses through the combination of expertise in strategy, Internet technology and marketing communications. USWeb/CKS helps clients differentiate their products and services, strengthen customer relationships, leverage human capital, and improve business efficiency in the new electronic economy. With more than 2,000 professionals, USWeb/CKS has helped hundreds of businesses advance their marketing communications programs as well as their traditional IT and Internet systems. The Company provides a broad selection of services from brand development and advertising to business process automation and e-commerce solutions. The Company headquarters are in Santa Clara, California. Additional information about USWeb/CKS is available by calling 408-987-3200.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" (as defined under securities law) regarding USWeb/CKS' work with Levi Strauss, Furniture.com, VarsityBooks.com, Sunbank and Go Network. There can be no assurance that these projects will be successful or that they will contribute positively to the company's results of operations. Further, these projects do not necessarily indicate that the company will be able to secure additional similar projects. For additional information about factors that could affect the business of USWeb/CKS, see the documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.