Real Media Signs Excite in France

Real Media Inc. in New York City became the exclusive sales representative for Excite in France.

Excite also quickly launched a site for “Le Mondial de l’Auto ’98,” an international auto show, distributing it across Excite France.

The online program was developed for one of the auto show’s prime sponsors BNP, a large French bank with offerings in consumer auto credit.

Real Media said it brought together a group of Web sites and branded publishers for additional content, including French auto magazines Auto Occasion and Evasions and Autoroute FM (a Paris radio station) to produce a site with information on the show itself.

Features include new models, interactive auto information and buying services and advertising for new cars, aftermarket products and auto financing. Billings were not disclosed.

The auto show package is up on the BNP site as well as being syndicated as custom content across Excite France and Web 66 (a network of 30 Web sites representing 14 regional newspapers in France). Autoroute FM is providing radio promotional support and the Web 66 newspapers are promoting the Mondial site. Other advertisers on the site include Alfa Romeo, IBM, Opel, Procar, Citron and Club Internet.

“This shows how the power and reach of the Web can be harnessed very rapidly for marketers,” said Real Media President Dave Morgan. “In Mondial we are delivering for top French national and international advertisers an integrated content package of very strong interest to new car buyers distributed across vertical content sites, branded local media news sites and a major portal site.”

The Mondial site was built for Real Media by a French Web design and development company, infodeclics and will be up until Oct. 15.