You've Got Britney! America Online and Britney Spears Form Multi-tiered Strategic Alliance; AOL To Promote Britney Across AOL Family of Brands

Business Wire, Oct 18, 2001

Business Editors/Entertainment Writers

DULLES, Va. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2001

AOL Members Gain Unprecedented Access To Britney During Upcoming Fall

Tour And Beyond

$1 of Every Britney Concert Ticket Sold Will Benefit The Children of

the Firefighters and Police Officers Lost in the September 11th

Tragedy

America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive service company, and Britney Spears, one of the world's most popular recording artists and performers, today announced a multi-tiered strategic alliance to promote Britney, her live performances and recorded music, and create unique marketing opportunities for AOL through a range of exclusive online activities with the global star.

Britney Spears and America Online have entered into a marketing alliance and brand partnership to promote Britney and her music, offer her popular content to AOL members and web music fans and provide unique ways to interact with the star. Opportunities featured across the AOL service and AOL's web properties in the coming year will include exclusive access to her music and videos, online chats, contests, ticket specials, and more, as well as the launch of a series of original programming packages. The AOL service (AOL Keyword: Britney Spears) will become the online home for Britney and for her growing population of fans in America and around the world.

As part of the broad-reaching agreement, AOL members have the only chance to purchase tickets for Britney's fall tour before they are available to the general public. As previously announced, Britney will donate $1 of every ticket sold through the AOL service to the children of the New York City firefighters and police officers lost in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. AOL members have convenient one-stop access to this exclusive pre-sale ticket promotion at the new AOL Box Office (AOL Keyword: Box Office), where advance tickets go on sale today for her concerts in Milwaukee, WI, and Minneapolis, MI.

"We are in the midst of transforming the online music experience for consumers, and this relationship between America Online and Britney Spears truly speaks to the Internet's ability to reinvent the way that music is marketed," said Barry Schuler, Chairman and CEO of America Online. "We are building a new model that creates lasting value for both AOL and Britney and brings great benefits to our more than 31 million members around the world. We are especially pleased that this new relationship offers another way our members can be a part of the relief efforts, through Britney's generous donation of $1 per ticket sold on AOL."

"I am excited to kick off my fall tour with the entire America Online community behind me and it also means so much to me that I am able to extend my contribution to the victims' children of the September 11 attack on our nation," Britney said.

"AOL Music is redefining the way we connect artists and fans, and this relationship with Britney represents a new kind of celebrity sponsorship in which we will create lasting interactive connections between Britney and her fans," said Kevin Conroy, SVP, head of AOL Music. "Beginning with her fall tour, AOL members have advance access to concert tickets - with the special opportunity to contribute to relief efforts, and throughout 2002, they'll enjoy opportunities to get to know Britney and her music on a deeper level through campaigns that will bring her to life across the service and Web properties."

AOL will also run special promotions during the tour through which AOL members can attend sound check parties and sit on stage at one of her concerts. Throughout the tour, Britney will provide AOL with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and photographs as they move across America, as well as personal tour diaries written for fans. Britney will correspond with fans by responding to written questions from AOL members.

AOL software will be included on every domestic copy of Britney's forthcoming CD, "Britney," and her official Web site, http://www.britneyspears.com will include information on the AOL service and the ability to download AOL software.

Almost immediately, Britney fans will find a variety of new and highly personalized features available across AOL properties, including a downloadable Britney screensaver, official Britney skin for the popular Winamp player, and an exclusive Britney radio station on the new Radio@AOL. Britney will also join the ranks of other celebrities who have recorded AOL's trademark greetings, including "Welcome," "You've got mail" and "Goodbye." The greetings will be recorded in a number of languages to be made available to AOL members around the world.

The partnership with AOL will enable Britney and AOL to promote additional elements of Britney's music, tours, and other unique content across AOL's services in more than 17 countries in eight languages, and to bring this dynamic star driven promotion to AOL's nearly seven million members outside the United States.

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