NEW YORK-Interactive marketing company 24/7 Real Media Inc. and wireless content vendor Vindigo announced an innovative teaming that will add advertisements to Vindigo’s WAP pages.
“As the leading provider of mobile media, Vindigo is poised to capitalize on the burgeoning market of mobile advertising,” said Carrie Himelfarb, vice president of sales for Vindigo. “24/7 Real Media’s Open AdStream is the only technology of its kind robust enough to enhance mobile advertisers’ ability to target campaigns and effectively track results. Together, Vindigo and 24/7 Real Media will set the precedent for mobile advertising.”
Wireless advertising has long been a topic of conversation within the industry. Indeed, marketing can take a variety of forms in wireless, be it sponsored content, text-messaging campaigns, interactive TV services or coupon-style promotions. A variety of companies play in the wireless marketing space including M-Qube and others. However, advertising on WAP pages has been relatively ignored due to the space constraints of the mobile-phone screen as well as low usage numbers for WAP. Nonetheless, others have attempted WAP advertising; AvantGo offered WAP advertising several years ago.
Under Vindigo’s partnership with 24/7 Real Media, customers with WAP-enabled phones will be able to view third-party advertisements. Customers will have the option to click on these ads, which will lead them to a new page with opt-in e-mail capabilities for direct response or take the customer to the advertiser’s own WAP site.
Vindigo is hoping to cash in on the burgeoning market for Internet advertising. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet advertising totaled nearly $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004.
