REDMOND, Wash., May 6, 2003 — MSN®
House & Home, part of the MSN network of Internet services and one of the Internet’s most comprehensive resources for home buying, selling and ownership, today announced a marketing and distribution agreement with ServiceMaster, America’s Service Brands for Home and Business. Nationally recognized ServiceMaster brands include Terminix, TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare, American Residential Services, Rescue Rooter, American Mechanical Services, ServiceMaster Clean, American Home Shield, AmeriSpec, Merry Maids and Furniture Medic.
Under the alliance MSN House & Home plans to leverage ServiceMaster’s Family of Brands to provide consumers with deep and extensive home ownership resources. ServiceMaster will benefit from MSN House & Home’s massive, targeted consumer reach and integration with the MSN network, which attracts more than 300 million unique users worldwide per month. By visiting the ServiceMaster Home Services page from the MSN House & Home site, homeowners can receive information and estimates on a wide variety of home-related services including home warranty, housekeeping, plumbing and heating repairs, and home security, as well as free lawn analyses and termite and pest evaluations.
“This strategic alliance enables us to raise awareness and drive adoption of our brands among MSN House & Home’s consumer base,”
said Ralph Tschantz, vice president and managing director of the New Channels Development Group at ServiceMaster.
“As a featured home services partner for MSN House & Home, we are now able to reach a massive amount of targeted consumers in an engaging environment, with relevant content and services.”
Approximately 52 percent of the consumers who visit MSN House & Home each month are homeowners (i.e., own a single-family home), more than one-third are interested in home repair and/or renovation, and 97.2 percent have shopped online in the past six months.*
In addition to serving as a featured home services partner for MSN House & Home, ServiceMaster is implementing seasonal editorial specials (e.g., information on how to best take care of a lawn, including details on how to get a free estimate) on the MSN home page, and a variety of online advertising media across the network. The campaign will be tracked by an MSN advertising effectiveness study, further demonstrating MSN’s commitment to measuring online brand engagement. The campaign was launched at the beginning of the second quarter of 2003.
“The ServiceMaster Family of Brands will enhance MSN House & Home’s home ownership offerings with useful everyday home services, giving millions of MSN consumers the ability to research and make informed decisions about their home,”
said Don Holtzinger, director of business development for MSN.
“We will continue to provide national partners with the best marketing and distribution platform to reach home buyers and owners.”
MSN House & Home continues to team with industry leaders to provide the deepest content and services available to its growing consumer base. The relationship with ServiceMaster follows other recent alliances with industry leaders PRIMEDIA Inc., Builder Homesite Inc., ConsumerInfo.com Inc. and MortgageSelect.com.
About ServiceMaster
ServiceMaster (NYSE
“SVM”
) currently provides outsourcing services for more than 10.5 million residential and commercial customers, with combined customer level revenue of approximately $5.1 billion. As America’s Service Brands for Home and Business, the core service capabilities of the Company include lawn care and landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, plumbing, heating and air conditioning services, cleaning, furniture repair and home warranty.
These services are provided through a network of over 5,400 company-owned and franchised service centers and business units operating under leading brands which include Terminix, TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare, American Residential Services, Rescue Rooter, American Mechanical Services, ServiceMaster Clean, American Home Shield, AmeriSpec, Merry Maids and Furniture Medic.
About MSN House & Home
Launched in 1998, MSN House & Home is one of the most comprehensive resources on the Internet for buying, selling and owning a home. With fully integrated content and services, ranging from improving and maintaining to buying and financing a home, MSN House & Home is one of the most trusted names in the online real estate category. MSN House & Home is the exclusive real estate channel on the MSN portal and can be found at http://houseandhome.msn.com/ .
About MSN
MSN has 8.7 million subscriptions and attracts more than 300 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 34 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and digital marketing solutions to businesses worldwide. MSN 8 is the first Internet software product to have earned the trusted Good Housekeeping Seal. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
*Nielsen//NetRatings @Plan, spring 2003
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