Quicken.com, (www.Quicken.com) Intuit's leading personal finance web site, announced today that in its second year of business, the site has reached its record-breaking high in closed marketing and advertising deals. Quicken.com has closed deals worth over $60 million over the next 2 years. The award-winning web site, which has experienced approximately 300% growth in page views since last year, continues to attract renewal contracts, large new deals and leading companies, including: Schwab, Datek Online, Discover Brokerage, and SureTrade.
"The growth of the Internet and the overwhelming success of Quicken.com has helped build momentum and attract companies to the site," stated Brooks Fisher, vice president and general manager of Intuit's consumer Internet business, including Quicken.com. "And combined with our sales team's focus on building strong marketing programs for our partners, we've been able to close some very significant and innovative deals with a variety of companies. These key elements have lead to our growth in revenue and in turn have become a confirmation of the model for the Quicken.com site."
Contributing to the success of the number of closed deals, is the unique relationship between the sales teams of Quicken.com and Excite. Over the past year, the Quicken.com ad sales team has worked in conjunction with Excite to close a number of ground-breaking, customized relationships. "Excite is delighted to have contributed to the enormous success of Quicken.com in demonstrating sustainable rapid growth of its advertising revenues," commented Ben Addoms, Executive Vice President of Sales for Excite. "The strategic alliance between Excite and Quicken.com has produced extremely positive results for both of us."
Quicken.com Signs Across Financial Categories
Quicken.com has signed deals with several leading financial institutions from many financial categories, resulting in significantly higher revenue than last year. Deals include leading mutual fund companies, worth 6 times more than last year's mutual fund deals, and leading brokerages. The broker deals, which include sponsorships by Datek Online, Discover Brokerage and SureTrade, and an investment education content deal with Schwab, account for 3 times more than the broker deals signed last year.
Beyond the Finance Category
Attracted by the high-income levels of the Quicken.com users and their propensity to buy online, many non-financial companies have signed on. Quicken.com closed significant deals with companies such as AT&T, Amazon, OfficeDepot.com, OfficeMax.com and others.
Customized Relationships
Quicken.com has developed a variety of customized deals that have provided additional options to companies looking to expand their marketing programs on the Web. Companies trying to explore opportunities beyond banner ads and sponsorships have been offered innovative alternatives, such as technology or content relationships. The Schwab relationship with Quicken.com is a strong example of this.
"Quicken.com's unique relationship with Schwab and Excite demonstrates how a creative approach to partnering can create a win-win situation for all involved, especially consumers," stated Martha Deevy, Senior Vice President of Electronic Brokerage of the Charles Schwab Corporation. "Through this relationship, Schwab provides valuable investment education content, enhancing the Quicken.com programming and creating a richer personal investing experience on Excite's Money & Investing channel."
