JLM Couture Signs Ad Pact With AOL

JLM Couture in New York City ,a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wedding apparel, entered into an exclusive advertising agreement with The Knot (AOL key word: wedding), American Online’s wedding area.

The one-year agreement makes JLM the exclusive sponsor of The Knot’s Turning Heads channel, giving the company exposure to The Knot’s 250,000 monthly users. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

JLM’s five brands–Lazaro, Visions, Alvina Valenta, Jim Hjelm Couture, and Occasions–have banners that are rotated throughout the site, allowing online visitors to access product photos and information, request brochures or find the nearest store carrying a particular product.

Through the agreement, JLM said it expects to receive, each month, approximately 250,000 impressions, have 100,000 dresses viewed and receive significant increases in requests for its bridal catalogs.

JLM chief executive Joseph L. Murphy said he believed the agreement would present “considerable opportunities to attract an untapped audience” for the company’s bridal products. “We’re very optimistic that The Knot will help us in building our customer base going forward in fiscal 1998 and beyond.”

According to The Knot, 32% of all visitors to its site do not read bridal magazines.

JLM Couture Inc., founded in 1987, is the nation’s only publicly traded manufacturer of wedding apparel. The company’s lines include Occasions, the industry’s first bridesmaids dresses designed for other social occasions in addition to the wedding; Lazaro, a contemporary bridal rendition of classic European bridal styling; Visions, a moderately priced bridal line featuring contemporary design, Jim Hjelm Couture contemporary bridal designs offering the finest fabrics; and Alvina Valenta, an upscale contemporary-classic styling.