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DoubleClick Q1 2005 Email Trend Report Highlights Strong Quarter For Retailers - Efficacy of Open Rate Metric Continues to Evolve as Image Blocking Becomes More Prevalent - NEW YORK, June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DoubleClick Inc. (NASDAQ:DCLK), the leading provider of solutions for marketers, advertising agencies and web publishers, today announced the release of the Q1 2005 Email Trend Report which shows email to be more productive than ever, with significant increases in the click-to-purchase conversion rate and orders per email delivered. The data also shows continuing stability in email marketing performance with bounce rates at an all time low, and stable click rates over the past three years of tracking despite a recent decline in open rates. The declining trend in open rates coincides with, and seems to reflect, the adoption of image filtering by various ISPs. This overall strength in email productivity reflects improved list management and data collection practices, as evidenced by the reduced bounce rates, as well as improved relevancy in content, reflected in the increased click rates and conversion rates. Email Productivity Remains Strong Following a very successful holiday retail season for email marketers, Q1 was also very strong for big brand retailers. For Retail and Catalog customers that track purchase activity through DARTmail, Q1 conversion metrics remained strong, despite a decline in open rates. The click-to-purchase conversion rate rose 24.2% (from 3.3%) to 4.1% versus Q1 2004 while orders per email delivered rose 18.2% (from 0.22%) to 0.26% versus the previous year. Meanwhile, average order size remained stable ($92 in Q1 2004) to $91 in Q1 2005. Overall, the data show that despite a dip in open rates, conversions have held steady demonstrating that when customers are "in-market" they are continuing to convert on email offers. Q1 2005 Response Metrics According to traditional metrics, email marketing remained stable in Q1 2005. Bounce rates, which were at an all time low at 8.3%, declined in every industry category that DoubleClick tracks. Although open rates declined from 38.2% in Q1 2004 to 30.2% in Q1 2005, click rates remained relatively stable, dipping slightly from 8.4% to 7.9%. This relative stability in click rates, despite the decline in opens, mirrors the HTML click-to-open ratio (which has increased from 26.6% to 30.2% from Q1 2004 to Q1 2005). These data demonstrate that content remains effective in driving click response once an email has been opened, and show consumers respond to email when they are cyclically "in market" for particular content for which they have subscribed. The challenges in maintaining open rates include the adoption of image blocking filtering mechanisms among many major ISPs and email programs (such as Outlook) as a response to protect readers from potentially graphical or offensive spam messages. A side effect of this change is a reduction in the calculated open rate of emails due to the inability to identify the email as opened unless the images render. Other technological factors that may be affecting open rates include the growth of Webmail mailbox size limits spurred by Gmail, and consumer adoption of bulk and "favorite" folder/filter rules to manage their increasingly crowded inboxes. As email marketing becomes more mainstream, file aging may also have an impact on open rates. Newer names on a customer file tend to be more responsive early on, and at the same time some long-term subscribers are frequently engaged and responsive. Understanding these age cohorts on file is a good step toward understanding increases and declines in open rates and enables marketers to tailor content appropriately. Marketers should also test different content, subject lines and offers to these different profiles, and should evaluate how response rates are indicative of customer value, to maximize the value they receive from the channel. Industry-specific Metrics Bounce rates declined in every category versus Q1 2004 and declined 25.7% overall. Retail and Catalog (6.2%), Consumer Publisher (6.7%) and Business Publisher (6.9%) recorded the lowest bounce rates this quarter. Open rates also declined in every category versus Q1 2004. Business Products and Services (36.7%), Financial Services (34.3%) and Business Publisher (32.8%) recorded the highest open rates this quarter. Click rates remained relatively stable versus the previous year, with half of the categories that DoubleClick tracks reporting increases and half declining. Financial Services and Consumer Publisher (both 10.3%) had the highest click rates this quarter followed by Consumer Products (8.9%) and Travel (8.4). "This quarter's data demonstrate the continuing effectiveness of email for communicating with and marketing to customers," said Kevin Mabley, Senior Director and General Manager of Strategic Services at DoubleClick. "We consistently see that our best-performing mailers are leveraging historical response data and all available customer profile data to target customer mailings to more relevant audiences and segments, while enhancing response and conversion data through more timely and relevant messages through dynamic personalization and event-based triggers." Methodology The DoubleClick Email Trend Report contains aggregate data from DoubleClick's DARTmail email delivery technology. The Q1 data are based on billions of permission-based emails from hundreds of clients. The full results are available to DoubleClick customers and an executive summary is available at: http://www.doubleclick.net/us/knowledge Performance metrics in this release relate to un-weighted averages across all companies. This is done to provide a measure of average company performance, due to the fact that very large mailers can bias the overall and category results. About DoubleClick Inc. DoubleClick is the leading provider of solutions for marketers, advertising agencies and web publishers to plan, execute and analyze their marketing programs. DoubleClick's online advertising, email marketing and database marketing solutions help clients yield the highest return on their marketing dollar. In addition, the company's marketing analytics solutions help clients measure performance within and across channels. DoubleClick Inc. has global headquarters in New York City and maintains 22 offices around the world. CONTACT: Dave Frankland DoubleClick 212.381.5629 DATASOURCE: DoubleClick Inc. CONTACT: Dave Frankland of DoubleClick, +1-212-381-5629, Web site: http://www.doubleclick.net/us/knowledge

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