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January 19, 1999, (LONDON)-- Leonardo, a leading provider
of on-line content distribution services for the global travel industry,
announced today the official launch of its proprietary technology platform
MediaBank, following successful beta testing. MediaBank provides hotels
and other travel suppliers with a one-stop-shop solution for promoting
their marketing material worldwide, serving as an efficient and cost-effective
Internet business-to-business application.
Leonardo leverages the Internet to create a revolutionary e-commerce paradigm that enables hotels, tourist boards and other travel suppliers to distribute pictures, logos, text and other forms of digital content to their marketing channels. By integrating data warehousing and transaction systems technologies with such value-added services as real-time reporting and automatic push, Leonardo instantaneously connects travel suppliers with their international distribution networks. Other immediate benefits of the service include a drastic reduction in production costs associated with duplications and mailing; improvement of image quality; streamlined information management and increased ease in updating materials. Among the 3,000 hotels already presented on MediaBank are such industry leaders as the Hilton International; resort hotels like the Pestana Group; city hotels like the Savoy Group; and other business and leisure hotels throughout 94 countries. Leonardo�s President and co-founder Itzhak Baram commented, "MediaBank�s advantages as a unique on-line service is twofold: hotels can outsource the distribution of their materials while their marketing channels can access MediaBank on a self-service basis to download the content they need for easy and immediate integration into advertising and promotional materials. By Internet-enabling the travel industry, Leonardo saves hotels precious time and money, allowing them to focus exclusively on valuable sales." During the fourth quarter of 1998, more than 180,000 images were distributed by Leonardo. In addition, 1,500 Internet sites are currently registered to use the content provided by MediaBank. MediaBank�s rapidly expanding distribution network currently includes such well-known travel companies as American Express, Sabre, First Choice and Fischer Reisen. "With more than 10,000 registered travel industry users, MediaBank offers hotels expanded access to existing and new marketing partners, paving the way to new business opportunities," said Baram. "As the Internet continues its evolution into a vital business tool, we look forward to making MediaBank the golden standard in on-line distribution of content for more and more companies worldwide." |
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