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Gather.com Launches Strategic Advertising Sponsorships with Charles Schwab, Expedia.com(R), Starbucks, Amtrak, AARP and Universal Music Classical/Decca Label GroupBOSTON --(Business Wire)-- Gather.com(TM), the leader in social media for adults, today announced strategic advertising agreements with multiple leading consumer brands including Charles Schwab, Expedia.com(R), Starbucks, Amtrak, AARP and Universal Music Classical/Decca Label Group. In addition to driving customer acquisition and retention, the advertisers will leverage Gather.com's platform to increase brand loyalty by creating an active, engaged and viral community around their brands. By allowing consumers to become part of the messaging through content, conversations and connections, consumers can create an association with the brand even when they're not using it. Gather.com has a highly educated, higher informed adult audience membership, a demographic elusive to most social networking sites. Additionally, Gather.com's unique social media environment allows big advertisers to tie their brands to user-generated content, as well as professional content generated by experts. "As one of the leading adult music labels in the country we look forward to working with Gather.com to promote awareness for all our artists and their music," said Paul Foley, General Manager, Universal Music Classical/Decca Label Group. "The Gather.com music channel will provide an innovative platform for us to reach a highly informed adult audience that is connecting with one another around the music they enjoy." "These sponsorships demonstrate how well known, leading companies can leverage the power of social media to further enhance their brands," says Tom Gerace, Gather.com Founder and Chief Executive Officer (tom.gather.com). "By creating an ongoing relationship with existing customers or starting a dialogue with potential customers, Gather.com's platform gives advertisers the opportunity to be front and center in an interactive and relevant environment." Gather.com recently announced its nine new content channels. These channels, branded Gather Essentials(TM), include: Books, Food, Health, Money, Movies, Music, News, Politics, and Travel. Each channel will include exclusive advertising sponsorships, beginning with Charles Schwab for the Money channel and Expedia.com, for the Travel channel. Gather.com's elusive demographic has made Gather.com an exceptional partner to media companies, advertising agencies, leading consumer brands, book publishers, and movie studios. "We consistently seek out new ways to engage with investors in their everyday lives," says Mike Naughton, Vice President of Media at Charles Schwab. "Gather.com allows us to test the concept of online communities in a demographically targeted and content-rich environment." For more information on Gather, go to www.gather.com. About Gather.com Gather.com (www.gather.com) is the leader in social media for adults. Today, more than 212,000 Gather.com members connect around shared interests ranging from politics to books and from cooking to travel, and they're compensated for their activity on the site. Members can engage in conversation with state and local politicians, health and financial experts, personal coaches, bestselling authors, and more. Over one million people visit Gather.com each month to read content created by Gather.com members. Gather.com has a highly educated, highly informed adult audience membership -- a demographic elusive to most social networking sites. This demographic has made Gather.com an exceptional partner to media companies, advertising agencies, leading consumer brands, book publishers, and movie studios. Gather.com is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Investors include Allen & Company, The American Public Media Group, Hearst, The McGraw-Hill Companies, and Southern California Public Radio. For more information, visit www.gather.com or call (617) 720-4000, x1032. About Charles Schwab The Charles Schwab Corporation (Nasdaq: SCHW) is a leading provider of financial services, with more than 300 offices and 6.8 million client brokerage accounts, 570,000 corporate retirement plan participants, 149,000 banking accounts, and $1.3 trillion in client assets as of January 31, 2007. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company provides a full range of securities brokerage, banking, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors and independent investment advisors. The Charles Schwab Bank, N.A. (member FDIC) provides banking and mortgage services and products. More information is available at www.schwab.com. About Starbucks Starbucks Coffee Company provides an uplifting experience that enriches people's lives one moment, one human being, one extraordinary cup of coffee at a time. To share in the experience, visit www.starbucks.com. About Amtrak Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail service to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 21,000-mile route system. For schedules, fares and information, passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com. About AARP AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. We produce AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, our monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, our bimonthly magazine in Spanish and English; NRTA Live & Learn, our quarterly newsletter for 50+ educators; and our website, AARP.org. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. About Universal Music Classical/Decca Label Group Universal Music Group is the world's largest music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's largest global music publishing operations. Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca Music Group, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Music Latino, Universal Motown Records Group, Universal Records South and Verve Music Group, as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, a new media and technologies division, and Universal Music Mobile. Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company. |
