Hooked on Phonics Chooses Bridgeline

Hooked on Phonics Selects Bridgeline to Power New eCommerce Initiatives          

BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 4 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLIN), a provider in cloud-based Web Content Management, eCommerce and Marketing Automation software, announced that Hooked on Phonics, operated by Smarterville Productions, LLC, a leading creator of educational products, has selected Bridgeline to redesign and redevelop its marquee web properties, www.hookedonphonics.com and www.shopgpn.com. Through the deployment of Bridgeline’s proprietary state-of-the-art, .NET-based eCommerce system, Hooked on Phonics looks to improve their online store capabilities and increase existing eCommerce sales. Bridgeline’s solution provides an easy to use, feature-rich platform that allows store owners to personalize product offerings, improve marketing effectiveness and leads, and offer value-added services that generate more satisfied online customers. Additionally, by utilizing Bridgeline’s teams of design, usability testing, and search engine optimization experts, Hooked on Phonics seeks redeveloped web properties and an integrated eCommerce system that are intuitive, easy to find, and conversion oriented.

Hooked on Phonics was created in 1987 and has since been used by more than 2 million families to help teach children critical reading, math, and study skills. Its groundbreaking approach and adoption of phonics-based in-home learning, along with extensive television and radio advertising, quickly made Hooked on Phonics a household name. “Hooked on Phonics benefits from outstanding brand recognition and highly-regarded educational products by both parents and teachers”, says Judy Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Smarterville “We appreciated the opportunity to work with Bridgeline to enhance our customers’ experience on our site.”

The new eCommerce system enhances Hooked on Phonics’ capabilities around product promotion, customer service, and overall system administration. Many of the automated features of Bridgeline’s system will be utilized including BOGO (Buy One Get One free), bundling, and cross-sale. For example, cross-sale items can be displayed during the shopping and checkout processes reminding customers that they may also be interested in other related items. Additionally, a “refer a friend” viral marketing feature will be utilized to enhance word-of-mouth promotion. Bridgeline’s built-in Customer Service Chat feature will also be integrated, providing shoppers with an immediate, real-time response to their questions and requests. From a system management stand-point, Hooked on Phonics will now have the ability to control both their business-to-consumer (www.hookedonphonics.com) and business-to-business (www.shopgpn.com) eCommerce stores from the same administrative back-end. Bridgeline’s dashboard technology will provide a real-time overview of Hooked on Phonics’ online stores and offer data intelligence reports on sales trends, buyer demographics, and profit margins as well as system alerts on inventory levels, order fulfillment status, production issues, and shopping cart abandonment. Bridgeline will also maintain and support the back-end infrastructure for Hooked on Phonics in its state-of-the-art managed services hosting environment.

Bolstering the Hooked on Phonics software implementation are Bridgeline’s teams of web services professionals. Bridgeline’s User Centered Design process ensures that design and user experience are core considerations of a project’s web development lifecycle. The net effect is increased traffic, improved visitor retention, higher conversion levels, and reduced long-term development costs.

About Hooked on Phonics

Hooked on Phonics is a leading creator of educational products for families that are fun, successful and easy to use. The company works with professional educators, interactive designers, writers, artists and parents to develop step-by-step learning systems that help teach children critical learning skills to help them succeed in school and in life. Hooked on Phonics products are available at major retailers worldwide and online at www.hookedonphonics.com.

About Smarterville, Inc.

Smarterville Productions LLC is a leading creator of supplemental educational products and media for parents and teachers. More than two million families and thousands of schools have turned to Smarterville and its portfolio of award-winning education products and media, such as Hooked On Phonics and the PBS series, Reading Rainbow.

About Bridgeline Digital

Bridgeline Digital, The Digital Engagement Company™, helps customers maximize the performance of their full digital experience - from websites and intranets to online stores and campaigns. Bridgeline's Unbound (formerly iAPPS®) platform deeply integrates Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, Social Media management, and Web Analytics to help marketers deliver digital experiences that attract, engage, nurture and convert their customers across all channels. Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., Bridgeline has thousands of quality customers that range from small- and medium-sized organizations to Fortune 1000 companies. To learn more, please visit www.bridgeline.com or call (800) 603-9936.