Advanstar and Behindthechair.com Announce Strategic Alliance

Posted on July 18, 2001

Advanstar's International Beauty Group (IBG) and Behindthechair.com have announced an exclusive strategic alliance. The alliance provides web capability for the IBG magazines, American Salon and American Spa, and trade shows IBS-New York, IBS-Long Beach and HaircolorUSA, and provides behindthechair.com, an online portal for salon professionals, off-line exposure through the International Beauty Group.

``Smart marketers and advertisers want to reach salon professionals through a variety of targeted media. By joining forces with behindthechair.com, the International Beauty Group adds the largest beauty-industry website to its current magazine, trade show, directory and market service offerings. We see this as an alliance of leading community builders-by working together, we multiply the growth opportunities for the International Beauty Group, behindthechair.com and for our customers,'' said Judith Princz, VP/General Manager, International Beauty Group.

Together, behindthechair.com and the International Beauty Group will create co-branded, cross-promotional programs enticing American Salon readers to visit behindthechair.com and enticing behindthechair.com visitors to read American Salon and attend the IBS shows. Some of the planned programs include video streaming of artist interviews coinciding with American Salon photo shoots; reader surveys conducted by behindthechair.com and reported on in future issues of American Salon and co-sponsored American Salon and behindthechair.com educational events. Also, The Annual Stylist Choice Awards, created by behindthechair.com, will be co-sponsored and supported by American Salon with the award ceremony held in New York in March, 2002 at the IBS show.

``The International Beauty Group, reaching over 200,000 salon professionals annually through American Salon, American Spa and its beauty shows, is the largest in the field. Behindthechair.com is excited to be able to leverage the reach and exposure of the International Beauty Group to accelerate the growth of our membership. Within a few short months, we expect to double our membership and close in on that magic number of 100,000 members.'' said Mary Rector-Gable, Founder/CEO of Behindthechair.com.

Behindthechair.com has 2,000 pages of content and maintains exclusive content relationships with Vidal Sassoon Academies, Milady and Salon Business Strategies. The International Beauty Group publishes magazines (American Salon, American Spa), directories (the annual Green Book) and produces trade shows and conferences (IBS-New York, IBS-Long Beach and HaircolorUSA) for the professional beauty community. The International Beauty Group is owned by Advanstar Communications Inc.