COCA-COLA AND PANINI LAUNCH THE OFFICIAL UEFA EURO2008™ ONLINE STICKER ALBUM

As the countdown to this year's biggest football festival continues to gather pace, Coca-Cola, official sponsor of UEFA EURO2008™, and Panini today join forces with Microsoft to launch the ultimate collector's item for football fans this summer – the first ever fully online sticker album that integrates the world's largest on-line chat community.

The Coca-Cola UEFA EURO2008™ Panini Online Sticker Album builds on the long standing tradition of football fans young and old in collecting stickers and completing albums in support of their favourite club, domestic league or as a memento of major tournaments. This latest generation online album retains all the enjoyment of collecting and trading stickers and is based on the existing off-line UEFA EURO 2008™ Panini sticker collection, but with a key difference: for the first time an online digital album that gives collector football fans the possibility to play and trade stickers with their friends directly from a Windows Live Messenger chat integrated in the website. A unique and memorable way of enjoying UEFA EURO2008™ for fans around the world.

The online version, developed by Fullsix, is designed to provide football fans with the most advanced collector experience of its kind. Not only does it let you flip pages at the touch of the mouse and move around players as if they were real Panini stickers, but fans can also continue to share the enjoyment of trading stickers like they would in real life through an exclusive partnership with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger.

Coca-Cola and Panini have developed an exclusive partnership with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger to integrate the world's largest on-line community into the album. Users can invite friends to collect and trade stickers with them or alternatively trade their stickers outside the album on forums, blogs, and social networks for the most precious and rare stickers.

To help manage their collections, all users have access to a BOT, an artificial intelligence character that guides them through their collection by playing trivia games, source stickers missing from their collection and provide hints on the availability of the rarest stickers among friends. But the Coca-Cola UEFA EURO2008™ Panini Online Album is more than just simply a sticker collection, enabling fans to expand their knowledge about the UEFA EURO2008™ tournament offering Tournament information, biographies, images and videos on each of the 16 teams taking part in the tournament.

Miguel Moreno Toscano, EU Interactive Digital Consumer Marketing Manager, said: "Collecting and trading football stickers and completing football albums has been a hobby enjoyed by fans for generations. Now, thanks to our long-standing partnership with UEFA and Panini supported by Microsoft's leading technology, we can offer fans the chance to share the passion and excitement of UEFA EURO2008 in a way they've never been able to experience before. I am sure the Coca-Cola UEFA EURO2008™ Panini Online Album will capture the imagination of fans and provide them with a unique memento of this summer's tournament."

Panini's directors Giusy Christiana Panari and Giorgio Aravecchia confirm:
"Everything was born from our shared passion for football. Panini together with the Coca-Cola Company have created a project that goes beyond anything we have seen before! Football fans around the world love to get their hands on Panini stickers during an event of this calibre: the online album will offer an even more special experience!"

Marc Bresseel, General Manager, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, EMEA said: "Bringing iconic brands like Panini into the digital world using creative innovation and technology are at the heart of what we do at Microsoft, so we were very excited to be part of this project. Using Windows Live Messenger collectors will be able to play and trade cards with millions of other people across the network and going digital opens up the experience to a new set of football sticker enthusiasts."

To begin your Coca-Cola UEFA EURO2008™ Panini Online Album simply visit www.euro2008album.com

The Coca-Cola Company has supported football at all levels, from grassroots through to major tournaments such as the UEFA European Championships and FIFA World Cup™, for over 30 years. Coca-Cola is one of the longest-standing partners of UEFA and looks forward to helping to make UEFA EURO2008™ the most exciting and memorable yet for millions of football fans around the world.

The Panini Group - celebrating official football collection for at least three generations - based in Modena (Italy), is the world leader in the collectibles and trading cards sector. A multinational company and one of the leading comic and children's book publishers in Europe and Latin America, Panini is the most important distributor of comics in specialised Italian bookshops. Furthermore, Panini is exploring important multi-media programmes. In 2007, the Panini Group reached a turnover of more than 540 million Euros, with a total network that covers over 100 countries and more than 700 employees.