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Article courtesy of © Alaska Journal of Commerce |
Alaska-bred Web site looks Outside
Excerpts of Article by: Nancy Pounds - Journal Assistant Editor
April 9, 2000 - Pg. 5 & 14
A dot-com company hatched in Alaska and backed with Lower 48 investors aims to build its reputation here before expanding to Lower 48 locales by fall.
Livepostcard.com founders visited San Francisco in late March to raise venture capital and scout for top executives for the expansion.
"This could potentially be a very large endeavor started in Alaska," said co-founder Kevin Roudebush.
However, if plans succeed to operate nationally, the company could move some functions Outside, he said.
"It depends on how quickly we ramp up our management team," said Roudebush, who is looking for three to five people to lead the company.
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Livepostcard.com photographs Alaska visitors at certain attractions and then e-mails photos to the visitors' family and friends or produces prints, albums and other personalized items from the photos. |
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Livepostcard.com kicked off last summer with about a dozen Alaska attractions participating, said Dee Dee Kay, company marketing director.
Livepostcard employs 14 people, including seven in Alaska, with Web designers and others living in California and Colorado, she said.
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Last year visitors were photographed for Livepostcard.com at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Phillips Cruises & Tours and the Alaska Native Heritage Center, she said. |
This year there is no charge for the service, but a fee could follow next year, she said. The company charges $10 for 8 by 10 prints, $20 for bound scrapbooks; photo mugs and other personalized items can also be purchased.
Livepostcard can dispatch its own photographers equipped with customized digital cameras or high-volume visitor destinations can assign a staff member to shoot photos, Kay said. At the end of the day, photographers upload pictures onto the Internet.
Visitor benefits of the product include swift delivery of postcards and saving time spent writing the letters, she said. The product is a marketing boost for attractions since information about the destination is included on the e-mail postcard as well as a link to its home page, Kay said.
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From Aug. 15 through Sept. 19, of almost 200 photos taken at Phillips' 26 Glacier Cruise more than 400 e-mail postcards were sent, according to Livepostcard.com statistics. And 34 percent of e-mail recipients clicked through to the 26 Glacier Cruise Web site. |
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This year about 35 Alaska visitor sites are to participate, including Santa Claus House in North Pole, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art
and the Mount Roberts Tram in Juneau, she said.
"We believe in the product," she said. " We believe it has a lot of value. We just want to prove it to the attractions."
Some similar products at attractions include photographing visitors at a kiosk-rather than during an activity-then e-mailing the photo, Kay said.
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Livepostcard.com hopes to build its customer base by offering the service free this year. Also, the product is good word-of-mouth marketing for the state, Kay said. |
For publicity the company photographed 81 Iditariders, people who ride in the Iditarod racers' dog sleds for the ceremonial start in Anchorage. Livepostcard officials were surprised that more than 60 Iditariders purchased 8 by 10 prints of themselves, Kay said.
One drawback is that America Online users can't receive the e-mail postcards directly but must instead log on to Livepostcard's web site, Kay said.
The company is still refining its process. Livepostcard is retooling programming on its custom digital cameras, and before going national, the company plans to install a password security system to locate photos on its Web site, she said.
Livepostcard.com envisions working with cruise lines, Kay said. Other opportunities range from weddings and league sports like hockey teams among other venues.
"I think there is a huge opportunity for conventions or incentive groups," she said.
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