Press Release

LONDON - October 2002 - NEWS RELEASE

SUN, SNOW AND TEXT!

New Apres-ski Text Messaging Service in the Alps

With over 44 million text messages sent every day in the UK, SMS has become a big part of all of our lives. And this winter, ALPtxt, a new free text messaging service, will keep skiers and boarders up to date with all the best apres-ski in the Alps.

Many snow lovers have already used texting in ski resorts to meet up with friends on the slopes or tell those at home what they're missing. ALPtxt adds apres-ski updates to that, with news on all the best nights out, including drinks promotions, happy hours, bands and DJs, as well as info about local events and competitions.

ALPtxt is a free service from season workers' company, Natives (www.natives.co.uk).

Iain Martin, MD of Natives, said: "We already work closely with many bars in the Alps, helping them to find their staff and organising events as part of our 'Show Love' tour."

"The feedback was so positive from our testing last year, that for 2003 we are expanding that to include nine of the biggest and livliest resorts in the Alps."

ALPtxt will be available this year in the big French resorts of Meribel, Courchevel, Val d'Isere, Chamonix, Val Thorens, Les Deux Alpes, Alpe d'Huez, Morzine and St Anton (Austria).

"Many of our users are resort workers who sign up for the whole season," said Iain Martin, "but ALPtxt is even probably even more useful for someone going out for a week and who may not know the resort."

This service is completely free to users, who can join and unsubscribe at any time.

According to Martin, subscribers can also be 100% confident their number won't end up in the wrong hands. "We operate a very strict privacy policy at Natives. We don't sell on email addresses or mobile numbers and we certainly don't do 'spam'."

Subscribers can sign up for ALPtxt updates in each resort by text message (see below) or online at www.alptxt.com.

SUBSCRIBE TO ALPTXT

You can sign up for the ALPtxt by going by sending one of the following text messages to 07703 163576 (make sure you leave a space between the words). You will then receive messages for that resort until you unsubscribe.

Meribel - ALPTXT MER	Chamonix - ALPTXT CHA
Val d'Isere - ALPTXT VAL	Morzine - ALPTXT MOR
Courchevel - ALPTXT COU	St Anton - ALPTXT STA
Deux Alpes - ALPTXT LDA	Alpe d'Huez - ALPTXT ADH
Val Thorens - ALPTXT VAT	To Unsubscribe - ALPTXT UNSUB

Alternatively you can sign up online at www.alptxt.com

ALPTXT TESTING 2001/02 - USER RESULTS

Reaction to Messages?

Positive 58%
Neutral 42%
Negative 0%

Action Taken due to Messages?

Often 21%
Sometimes 47%
Never 32%

Number of Messages?

Too Few 66%
About Right 27%
Too Many 7%

Word of Mouth?

Often Told Others 61%
Sometimes Told Others 19%
Never Told Others 20%

Recommend ALPtxt?

Yes 91%
No opinion 7%
No 2%

Effective way of promoting?

Yes 96%
No opinion 2%
No 4%

Age of Participants?

< 18 3%
19-24 73%
> 24 24%

USER COMMENTS

"i think it's a fab idea as so many people have mobiles. Even tho people have e-mail access it is so expensive to get at the internet so e-mails, particularly mine, go unread for weeks at atime."

"i recieved texts about the big events in val. most of them i knew about but often i hadnt heard about them and neither had friends so it was great to be the one in the know!!"

"its a brilliant idea but i recieved too few messages, but well done, my mates and i thought it was cool!!"

"the txt messages provided a very welcome source of information on big nights out that being down in le praz [Courchevel 1300] we probably wouldn't have heard about, lets continue following the flow of alchohol and totty."