LINCOLN, Mass., July 16 - PreVision Marketing, a leader in customer relationship marketing and technology, announced today that it has been selected to provide direct marketing strategy and database support to the Keds Corporation, a subsidiary of The Stride Rite Corporation. The partnership is in preparation for Keds' launch of six new retail stores in 2001. PreVision will develop and maintain a retail customer database for Keds along with a targeted communications program for new and existing Keds customers. Keds selected PreVision over several other database providers and direct marketing agencies due to PreVision's depth of strategic knowledge and recent technical innovations, as well as its string of successes in the retail arena and proven track record with Ked's sister brand, Stride Rite. PreVision has already initiated direct marketing support for Ked's two store openings last month outside Atlanta. "Keds has exciting products and rich customer segments. Not only will we help them use their data to immediately increase the short-term ROI of their acquisition and retention initiatives, but in doing so, we will also develop customer relationships that continue to pay out over the long term,'' said Deirdre Girard, principal, PreVision Marketing. "We are excited about applying our disciplines of loyalty program economics, applications-driven technology and relationship branding to develop a data-driven communications program that delivers unique value to customers while generating bottom-line results for Keds.'' "PreVison's retail experience and expertise, as well as their approach of tackling strategy, communications and technology worked very well with the Stride Rite Children's Group, which helped us conclude that PreVision was the right fit for Keds,'' said Kathy Doody, Marketing Manager. In addition to marketing strategy and communications support, PreVision will build and maintain Ked's customer marketing database. PreVision will employ its new suite of marketing software, PREVISIONWARE(TM), in the management of this account.PREVISIONWARE(TM) marketing software has been developed to actually help users go beyond mere facilitation of marketing campaigns, to dramatically increase their ROI. This sophisticated marketing intelligence is embedded into the product based on PreVision's groundbreaking ideas and proven methodologies.