TORONTO, March 20, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- FirstBingo.com (OTCBB:FBGO) is pleased to announce the interim results of its marketing campaign with CANOE.CA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Netgraphe Inc., a Quebecor company. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, CANOE.CA has been promoting FirstBingo's TriviaBingo game utilizing a variety of advertising mediums, including exposure on the CANOE.CA Website and a campaign presented in Sun Media Corporation newspapers.
"So far this convergence campaign has provided tremendous public exposure for FirstBingo and has been an excellent opportunity for FirstBingo to showcase its TriviaBingo game," comments Richard Wachter, the company's president. "Partnering with CANOE.CA, combined with the national exposure of Sun Media newspapers, has been a great benefit to our company and will certainly lead to increased shareholder value," comments Mr. Wachter.
"The CANOE.CA Sun Media convergence campaign, not to mention future convergence campaigns with national brand exposure and initial success, are expected to generate a substantial revenue stream for the company," comments Mr. Wachter.
The following are the interim results for the first 24 days of the campaign:
Number of Players -- 59,349 Page Views (per player) -- 2,754,363 (46) Cards (per player) -- 436,899 (7) Full Cards achieved -- 28, 429 Total Playtime min. (min/player) -- 1,817,162 (31)
With more than $25,000 in prize giveaways, players on the Internet TriviaBingo game will be able to test their knowledge and play for a variety of prizes. Prizes are awarded every hour, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the duration of the six-week campaign. In addition, each fully completed TriviaBingo card entitles the player to qualify for the grand prize, a 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier.
About CANOE.CA
CANOE is Canada's premier Web network of content sites. The home of SLAM!Sports, Jam!Showbiz, CNEWS, C-Health, WebfinMoney, Travel, Lifewise, Home & Garden, ClassifiedExtra.ca and AUTONET.CA. CANOE attracts more than six million unique users a month to its Website. The site also features Sun Media newspapers, including the Sun chain of papers in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa and the London Free Press.
Services include national movie and TV listings, online travel bookings, weather, horoscopes and more. The CANOE network, wholly owned by Netgraphe, also includes www.canoe.qc.ca, InfiniT.com, La Toile du Quebec, Webfin.com, Multimedium.com, Megagiciel.com, Jobboom.com and Matchcontact.com.
Sun Media Corporation is the second largest newspaper chain in Canada. The group publishes eight major dailies, covering eight of the country's 10 largest urban markets. Sun Media Corporation is a division of media giant Quebecor Inc. (TSE:QBR.A http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=qbrato.to ).
About FirstBingo.com
FirstBingo.com specializes in the development and production of Advergaming and multimedia properties, most notably an exciting Internet game and television game show called TriviaBingo. The company combines the skill-testing aspect of trivia with the excitement and popularity of the world's most played game, Bingo. Users to the site (http://www.firstbingo.com) are able to compete for a variety of prizes.
For further information please contact FirstBingo.com at (416) 281-3335 or 1 (800) 381-5272, or visit the company's Website at: www.firstbingo.com.
A cautionary note to investors as certain information contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements and not based on historical fact. Such matters involve risk and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including: changes in economic conditions, general competitive factors and the company's ability to execute its business model and strategic plan.