Lee Corso Sends Words of Wisdom to Thousands of Football Fans Through Popular Viral Voice Marketing Campaign  

DALLAS, Texas and RESTON, VA (October 27, 2004) –– Today, Click Here, the interactive marketing division of The Richards Group, and eStara announced the early results of a new viral marketing campaign. The “Send a Message from Corso” campaign gives fans of ESPN College GameDay Built ByThe Home Depot the ability to send phone calls to their friends from football analyst Lee Corso. The campaign, designed by Click Here and powered by eStara, has generated over 30,000 calls since it launched in September.

During the first month of the campaign, Corso call volume rose as game days approached. Fans sent as many as 2,200 calls per day on the Thursdays and Fridays before Saturday games. Results are generated in real-time and are available to ESPN College GameDay through eStara’s WebCare customer portal.

"ESPN College GameDay fans are passionate about football, and this promotion is another unique way to capture their enthusiasm in an entertaining viral campaign,” said Tim Lynde, event marketing manager at The Home Depot. "Combining compelling content and proven technology from eStara, Inc has resulted in a winning combination."

“When you want to convey an emotional message – whether it’s teasing a buddy or letting customers know you care – there’s no substitute for the human voice,” said Ian Halpern, eStara’s Director of Marketing. “Part of the fun we have at eStara in developing advanced voice systems for over 350 global companies is powering creative applications like this one.”

To use the free “Send a Message from Corso” promotion:

1. Visit the ESPN College GameDay Built By The Home Depot website - www.homedepot.com/espn - and click on the “Send a Message to Your Friend from Lee Corso” link. 
2. Listen to and select from one of five messages that capture Lee Corso’s football wit, wisdom and ridicule.
3. Enter your friend’s phone number into an eStara-created user interface.
4. Type in the unique verification number that is generated for each call to help prevent abuse and click the button to send the call from Lee Corso.

eStara has implemented a number of call security and call authorization measures to prevent abuse of the campaign. Each call requires an individual authorization code, and the service tracks IP addresses and telephone numbers to prevent abuse or unauthorized use of the system. The system also sets time parameters to prevent late night calls. 

About Click Here:

Established in 1995, Click Here is the interactive marketing division of The Richards Group. Using an integrated mix of strategy, marketing and technology, Click Here spurs actions that build relationships between a company and its customers, prospects, investors and employees. In addition to The Scotts Company and The Home Depot, Click Here currently provides services for such notable clients as Comcast, Go RVing, Hyundai and Travelocity.

About eStara:

eStara, Inc. develops VoIP solutions that deliver real-world results. eStara Push to Talk is the most widely deployed "click to call" service in the world with over 350 global enterprise customers and over 1,000,000 users in 113 countries. eStara Push to Talk gives users the ability to make PC-to-Phone and Phone-to-Phone calls from the Web. The service requires no additional hardware or software. eStara is headquartered in Reston, Virginia with European headquarters in Paris, France. Please visit http://www.estara.com/ for more information.

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