William Shatner Agrees To Captain Priceline.com's Ad Campaign Into The Next Millennium

Business Wire, Dec 16, 1999

HOLLYWOOD, Calif./STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 1999--

William Shatner, the world-famous actor and celebrity who helped build priceline.com's brand recognition at warp speed, has renewed his endorsement contract with priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) for two more years.

For the first time, Mr. Shatner will broaden his spokesperson role and appear in TV commercials on behalf of priceline.com. The new commercials are expected to air beginning in the first quarter 2000.

Market research studies show that more than half of all U.S. adults have heard of priceline.com, making it the second most-recognized e-commerce brand behind amazon.com. Mr. Shatner first appeared on behalf of priceline.com in April 1998, telling millions of Americans that priceline.com would be "big...REALLY big."

Since priceline.com first appeared on the Web offering leisure airline tickets, the Company's services have multiplied rapidly. Today, priceline.com also offers Name Your Own Price(TM) services for hotel rooms, new cars, home mortgages, refinancing, home equity loans and rental cars. Priceline.com recently announced that it would offer a Name Your Own Price service for long distance telephone calling in the first quarter.

The Company also licensed its business model to a privately owned company, Priceline WebHouse Club, that offers name-your-own-price groceries through over 1,100 grocery stores in the New York metro and greater Philadelphia areas. In return for the WebHouse Club license, priceline.com has received warrants allowing it to purchase a majority equity stake in the WebHouse Club under certain contingent conditions. Prior to the exercise of this warrant, the results of WebHouse Club operations will not be included in priceline.com's financial statements.

Sales for all of priceline.com's services have grown significantly since Mr. Shatner first hit the radio waves and newspapers. For example, in May 1998 priceline.com was selling just over 1,500 leisure airline tickets per week. Today, the service sells over 50,000 tickets a week, accounting for approximately 2% of all the leisure airline tickets sold in the United States. The Company now sells thousands of hotel rooms a week in 1,000-plus cities and towns in all 50 states.

"William Shatner has played an important role in catapulting priceline.com to national prominence and he will continue to contribute significantly as we build out our brand," said Daniel H. Schulman, priceline.com's president and COO. "Bill Shatner's recognition and appeal span generations and geography. His association with futuristic things makes him well-qualified to talk about how priceline.com is reinventing the way people can save money by naming their own price for goods and services."

"Two years ago, conventional wisdom was not in favor of celebrity endorsements for Internet products," said priceline.com's founder and vice chairman, Jay S. Walker. "Internet companies were supposed to focus their advertising online through banner ads and portal deals. Priceline.com believed that the right star power concentrated in more traditional radio and print advertising would effectively reach both Netizens and non-Internet users alike. Our innovative service and targeted media buying, combined with Bill Shatner, did the trick."

"I wasn't quite sure which was ultimately going to be big...really big - priceline.com's consumer idea or the risk these entrepreneurs were taking in breaking the old advertising mold," said Mr. Shatner. "As soon as I started to see the connection priceline.com was making with its customers, I knew priceline.com's management was onto something that would fundamentally change the way people buy things for the better."

About priceline.com

Priceline.com is the patented Internet pricing system that enables consumers to achieve significant savings by using their personal brand flexibility as a way to get goods and services at well below publicly advertised prices. Priceline.com takes consumers' price requests and then presents them to participating sellers, who can fill as much of that guaranteed demand as they wish at price points determined by the buyers.

Priceline.com's "virtual" business model allows for rapid scaling using the Internet. Because the Company electronically collects consumer demand, it can fill this demand directly with sellers or by using proprietary databases. Priceline.com does not maintain or warehouse inventories in any of its product lines.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions including, without limitation, "may," "will," "believes," "should," "could," "hope," "expects," "expected," "does not currently expect," "anticipates," "predicts," "potential," and "forecast," reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development and market acceptance of products and technologies and other factors described in the Company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligations to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.