11 April 2005

Multimap Powers Location-Based Services on www.volkswagen.co.uk to Drive More Customers to Their Nearest Volkswagen Retailers

Volkswagen, the largest car maker in Europe, and Multimap, Europe’s number one online mapping provider, today announced the deployment of Multimap’s “In-line” service on www.volkswagen.co.uk. The new site enhancement enables online customers to locate their nearest Volkswagen retailers in a few easy steps, and to view retailer locations as icons on a map. The deployment will enhance customers’ experience of locating their nearest retailer on the Volkswagen web site and should help to increase footfall to retailers across the UK.

Marianne Nicholas, Relationship Marketing Manager at Volkswagen, said, “Our retailers tell us that the deployment of Multimap’s ‘In-line’ service provides customers with a useful online service, showing them retailers’ physical location in an easy, accurate and simple way.

“We have found ‘In-line’ to be reliable, flexible and quick to implement. We are very pleased with the quality of the service, and the skills of Multimap’s professional services and technical teams,” she continued.

To search for the location of their nearest Volkswagen retailer, customers click on the “Retailers” link on www.volkswagen.co.uk; enter their postcode or town; request, should they so wish, to see results for retailers that stock uniquely “Phaeton” or “Touareg” vehicles; and hit “Search”. The site then delivers a list of the top five nearest retailers, in order of distance to the location entered. Users click on the listing of interest to view further information such as outlet contact details and opening hours, plus an interactive map pinpointing the exact location of the retailer, with zoom in/out and pan N,S,E,W functionality. Users can also access the same information by selecting a retailer’s name from a drop-down list, rather than conducting a location search.

Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Multimap said, “We have a strong presence in the automotive sector, with many high-profile clients, and we’re proud to welcome Volkswagen on board. Our services are quick, easy and cost-effective to implement, add value for the customer immediately and consistently, and have a significant impact on footfall; the combination of these factors makes Multimap the mapping provider of choice more than 700 business clients with an online presence across the globe.”

About Multimap

Multimap is Europe's leading provider of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on mobile, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms and in multiple languages.

The public website, www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada and Australia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; weather forecasts; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 7.3 million unique users, registers more than 140 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK. Multimap recently featured in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 league table of fastest-growing unquoted UK companies across all sectors.