CMGI‘s (CMGI) AltaVista
portal and retailer Musicland Stores
Corp. (MLG) Thursday struck a co-marketing deal that leverages
AltaVista’s online brand equity and Musicland’s 1,345 stores.
Musicland will become a premier provider on
Altavista Shopping.com, where it will offer nearly one million products in
the music, movies, books, and game software departments. Musicland’s main
e-commerce site, SamGoody.com, will
also receive banners on the AltaVista home page and other placements within
the AltaVista network.
All of Musicland’s e-commerce sites will appear in the Hot Deals area of
AltaVista Shopping.com’s home page and merchant results pages in certain
departments. The companies will also create a co-branded start page and
microportal for Musicland customers.
Musicland scratches AltaVista’s back by offering its free Internet access
to visitors to its e-commerce sites and retail stores. Musicland will also
promote the AltaVista brand in a variety of in-store promotions.
“Our alliance with AltaVista is an important element in Musicland’s
strategy to synergize ‘clicks-and bricks’ and expand our business,” said
Gil Wachsman, vice chairman of Musicland.
“AltaVista recognizes Musicland’s unique ability to access 300 million
store visitors to fuel AltaVista’s expanding user base, and we are very
pleased to be working with this Internet enterprise.”