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Artcyclopedia

Press Info

                     June 9, 2000: Artcyclopedia.com Signs Up Leading Names in Art World
                      
February 3, 2000: Artcyclopedia.com launches AdSculptor, a new online alternative to banner ads that allows advertisers to create custom ads on individual web pages


Overview

The Artcyclopedia is primarily an index to where paintings, sculptures and other great works of fine art can be viewed online, at hundreds of art museum sites and image archives worldwide.

Links are classified by artist. Where possible, artists are in turn classified in a variety of ways: by movement (e.g. cubism, impressionism), by medium (e.g. photography, sculpture), by subject matter (e.g. landscapes, still life), and by nationality.

The site also includes a comprehensive list of art museum sites worldwide, a guide to the visual search engines on the Internet, and a monthly top 30 list of the most-sought artists of the previous month.


Facts:
  • The Artcyclopedia first went online in February, 1999.
  • Over 1,000,000 people have used the Artcyclopedia to search for works by or information about their favorite artists.
  • Site traffic has been increasing steadily, and is currently running at approximately 8,000 visitors each day.
  • Traffic from the U.S. only has been independently measured at 173,000 unique visitors per month (May 2000) by PCData Online. ("Unique" in this context means any given individual is only counted once in a month.)
  • The Artcyclopedia's database currently consists of more than 24,000 links directly to an estimated 80,000 works by 7,500 different artists.
  • Artcyclopedia, Inc. is a privately owned company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
  • Artcyclopedia, Inc. is supported by advertising dollars - from ads created using the proprietary AdSculptor system, and also from affiliate relationships with several retail galleries.
  • The president of Artcyclopedia, Inc. is John Malyon. Click here for a brief bio and contact information.

Press Coverage:

Click here for a list of some of the press mentions we have received and awards we have won.


Press Releases:

For Immediate Release
June 9, 2000

Artcyclopedia.com Signs Up Leading Names in Art World

Customized ads achieve an average 20.4% clickthrough rate -- without the need for intrusive demographic targeting
 

Calgary, Alberta -- Artcyclopedia.com, the world's most comprehensive gateway to fine art on the Internet, today announced that it has signed agreements with several prestigious art world customers, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, artnet.com, eArtGroup.com and Frank E. Fowler. Mr. Fowler is the agent for American master Andrew Wyeth's original paintings.

"These new clients are among the first to use our proprietary AdSculptor technology to reach highly targeted audiences," says John Malyon, president of Artcyclopedia.com. "Instead of using banner ads, we deliver a customized message on the basis of content relevancy, enabling advertisers to reach the right audience at the right time with the right message. And the results are remarkable: we saw an overall clickthrough rate of 20.4% in May, as compared with an industry-wide banner ad response rate of well under one percent."

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the largest and most respected museums in the world, used the AdSculptor system to promote its recent Walker Evans retrospective. According to Denise Canniff, business development manager for the museum's online division, "The response has been gratifying. We are now in the process of expanding our marketing campaign with Artcyclopedia so that we can continue to reach our target audience effectively."

"We have been extremely pleased with the results of advertising on Artcyclopedia.com," says Michelle Mullineaux, director of marketing for artnet.com, a premier site on the web for art content and e-commerce since 1995. "This relationship has helped us to increase traffic from a pre-qualified audience of art buyers and enthusiasts." artnet.com is currently running more than 100 different ads on the Artcyclopedia.com site.

With AdSculptor, advertisers combine text and graphics in order to create customized ads, which can then be placed on individual pages of Artcyclopedia's web site. A gallery selling Salvador Dali editions, for example, could place an ad on the Artcyclopedia's Dali page and reach an audience composed entirely of people interested in that one artist. Or an auction house with an upcoming sale of Abstract Expressionist paintings could, in a single step, place a notice on the pages for each of the 38 Abstract Expressionist painters in the Artcyclopedia's database.

eArtGroup.com, a recently launched web site that specializes in the sale and promotion of the highest quality fine art from around the world, is another customer with more than 100 different ads running on the Artcyclopedia site. According to Edward Hsu, eArtGroup's director of business development, "Artcyclopedia draws some of the most serious art enthusiasts online, and our advertising with them has proven to be extremely successful."

"Banner ads have become so ineffective that investors are becoming concerned about the survival of any advertising-supported website," explains Malyon. "AdSculptor uses a fundamentally different approach: bringing advertisers together with their target audience by delivering a useful and relevant message."

Artcyclopedia.com (http://www.artcyclopedia.com/) is the premiere guide to where great art can be viewed online at art museum sites and image archives worldwide. It offers 24,000 direct links to an estimated 80,000 works by more than 7,500 different artists. In May 2000, it delivered more than 1,000,000 page views during 300,000 visitor sessions.

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For more information, please contact:
John Malyon
President
Artcyclopedia.com
(403) 547-9692

http://www.artcyclopedia.com

Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org

artnet
http://www.artnet.com

eArtGroup
http://www.eartgroup.com

Frank E. Fowler
http://www.awyeth.com

Neil Bousquet
Synergy
(403) 256-8834
neil.bousquet@prwizard.ca







(Note: The study of banner ads clickthrough rates referred to below was conducted in 1999 by Neilsen Media Research. It doesn't appear to be available online, but here is an article discussing the results.)

For Immediate Release
February 3, 2000

Artcyclopedia.com launches AdSculptor, a new online alternative to banner ads that allows advertisers to create custom ads on individual web pages
 

Calgary, Alberta -- Artcyclopedia.com, the world's most comprehensive gateway to fine art on the Internet, today announced that it has launched AdSculptor, a new service for art galleries, auction houses, and other art-related businesses. AdSculptor allows advertisers to design customized ads for individual pages of Artcyclopedia.com's website containing more than 6,000 accomplished artists.

"Banner ad response rates are dropping through the floor," says Artcyclopedia.com President John Malyon. "One major study found the average click-through rate to be 0.15% - that's less than one banner ad in 600 that is clicked on."

Malyon added: "AdSculptor ads are more compelling than banner ads, because they are relevant and useful, and integrated into the key informational area of the web page. AdSculptor empowers advertisers to reach their ideal target audience, at the precise time that the audience is most likely to be interested in the advertiser's message."

The AdSculptor system also respects an individual's right to privacy. Because ads are delivered on the basis of context, there is no need to track individual users or build demographic profiles.

Malyon notes that the AdSculptor model is a simple idea that works brilliantly. "Advertisers complete a user-friendly form to create an ad, that normally includes a text message and a thumbnail image or a logo. They then select the page or group of pages on which the ad will appear. It puts a remarkable degree of control in the hands of the advertiser."

Julia Kerr, owner of ArtMagick.com, a Seattle-based online gallery of Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist art, concurs. "AdSculptor is a very powerful marketing tool that lets me customize the content and style of my ad for each page. I am very satisfied with the click-through rate that ArtMagick's ads have generated - more than 10%."

Another satisfied customer is Bronze Direct, a California-based online gallery that sells reproductions of great sculptures. According to Jason Chow, the gallery's Director of Marketing, "the placement of the AdSculptor ads has enabled Bronze Direct to achieve a click-through rate of more than 6% while reaching a very targeted audience."

According to Malyon, delivering relevant and useful ads is a win-win for both advertisers and site visitors. An art gallery specializing in Rembrandt etchings, for example, can place a targeted message that will only be seen by art lovers and art professionals interested in that particular artist. An art auction house, wanting to attract bidders for a sale of Impressionist works, could place short-term ads on the pages of all 47 Impressionist artists in Artcyclopedia.com's database in one simple transaction.

Artcyclopedia.com (http://www.artcyclopedia.com/) is the premiere guide to where great art can be viewed online at art museum sites and image archives worldwide. It offers 20,000 direct links to an estimated 75,000 works by more than 6,000 different artists.

-30-
 

For more information, please contact:
John Malyon
President
Artcyclopedia.com
(403) 547-9692

http://www.artcyclopedia.com

ArtMagick
http://www.artmagick.com/

Bronze Direct
http://www.bronzedirect.com/

Neil Bousquet
Synergy
(403) 256-8834
neil.bousquet@prwizard.ca