Smilebox inks distribution partnerships with drugstore.com and Corel

Smilebox Inc., the innovator in multimedia expressions technology, today announced distribution partnerships with both drugstore.com, inc. (NASDAQ: DSCM) and Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: CREL; TSX: CRE), further broadening the availability of the Smilebox service to millions of new users. The agreements build on recent partnerships with market leaders such as Hallmark as part of the company’s E-Smile Program (ESP), an incentive-based network of distribution and content partners who syndicate customized versions of the Smilebox service to their audiences.

Under the terms of the agreements, drugstore.com and Corel participate in the revenue generated via advertising, transactions and subscriptions from the use of the Smilebox service by their consumers. They will also benefit from the organic traffic as new customers are driven back into their networks via shared emails and blog postings. The agreements demonstrate the flexibility the company offers its partners for adding Smilebox to their existing product and service offerings.

drugstore.com has just launched a co-branded version of the Smilebox service, making it available to more than 3 million unique monthly users as part of a new photo and video initiative. The popular Smilebox multimedia expressions are available today by going to the www.drugstore.com web site and choosing the “Photo & Video” tab at the top of the home page.

“We’re delighted to offer our customers this innovative and easy to use digital photo and video sharing service through Smilebox,” said David Lonczak, vice president, chief marketing officer, drugstore.com. “This fast-growing category is a natural extension of the more than 30,000 over-the-counter products we already offer to our customers.”

The partnership with Corel (www.corel.com) will result in the integration of the Smilebox service into Corel® Snapfire™. Distributed on millions of computers and devices each year, Corel Snapfire gives users all of the tools they need to easily organize, enhance and share their digital photos and video clips. The first stage of the partnership involves the distribution of Smilebox content within Snapfire. The next phase involves the integration of the complete Smilebox experience into Snapfire allowing Snapfire consumers to easily drag and drop their photos and personal videos into hundreds of Smilebox multimedia templates without leaving the Snapfire experience. The resulting projects can then be shared via email and social networks or printed.

“We are excited to offer our Snapfire customers even more options to spark their creativity,” said Blaine Mathieu, VP and General Manager, Products and Strategy, Corel Digital Media. “By incorporating Smilebox’s broad selection of professionally designed templates, Snapfire users will be able to produce more fun and engaging photo mementos to share with family and friends.”

“Customized and co-branded Smilebox services with market leaders such as Corel and drugstore.com clearly accelerates the speed in which we can reach potential customers,” said Smilebox founder and CEO Andrew Wright. “We’re pleased to provide these companies an extension of our service to enhance their product and service offerings to their own customers.”

The e-Smile Program
Through ESP, Smilebox is broadening the distribution of its service and growing its content selection of high-quality designs. Smilebox distribution and content partners receive a percentage share of all revenue (advertisement, transaction and subscription) generated by users of their version of the Smilebox service. ESP distribution partners maintain significant control over the version of Smilebox services that they distribute and their brand is prominently displayed throughout the user experience. The company’s partners control the content catalog and can offer designs created by them or by other Smilebox partners. They also maintain custom ownership and can merchandise their service as well as promote additional product offerings at their discretion. Each Smilebox sent through their co-branded service includes a link back to their website, thus driving viral traffic.

Smilebox provides its ESP partners with the Smilebox Design Kit, a set of content development tools enabling Smilebox partners to rapidly create and monetize their own content powered by the Smilebox service. Furthermore, the Smilebox design team provides training to help its partners’ design teams start creating content.

Among the current Smilebox ESP partners are Hallmark, Atom Entertainment’s Shockwave, Big Fish Games, Making Memories, and SavvyMom in Canada.

The Smilebox Service
The Smilebox service offers a creative way for consumers share their stories with friends and family using their photos, videos and music. Users can drag-and-drop photos and videos from their digital camera into hundreds of professionally designed slideshows, scrapbooks, greetings, postcards and photobooks and personalize with their own words, music and style. They can email their creations, print or post them to a web site or blog.

The Smilebox service can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.smilebox.com. Consumers can email the basic version of any design to family and friends for free with a short ad, purchase the premium version for a one-time fee of either $1.99 and $2.99, or subscribe to Club Smilebox for $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year and get unlimited use of all premium designs. With the premium design version, consumers can choose from hundreds of music options, print keepsakes and play their Smilebox on a full screen without ads.