4INFO intros SMS advertising marketplace

SMS-based search company 4INFO launched an ad-serving offering that places marketing pitches in text messages.
AdHaven, as the service is dubbed, is designed to enable mobile operators, content publishers and SMS aggregators to deliver text ads from anywhere in the world. The offering includes ad sales, campaign management and billing, and works over any SMS short code.
The company is hoping to encourage publishers and aggregators to integrate AdHaven APIs and deliver marketing campaigns that support click-to-WAP, click-to-call and click-to-video.
VeriSign Inc.’s Messaging and Mobile Media division will offer the first commercial deployment of AdHaven, but 4INFO hopes to ink deals with aggregators around the world, said CEO Zaw Thet.
“VeriSign is a charter partner of ours, but you’ll see more internationally,” Thet predicted.
4INFO, which has gained substantial traction in SMS search and has notched several impressive partnerships with traditional media outlets, hopes to become in SMS advertising what AdMob has become on the mobile Web: a marketplace where advertisers and publishers are connected through an automated service that delivers targeted ads. AdHaven users can either sell their own ad inventory or participate in 4INFO’s ad network, and the company hopes the new service pries open the door to other advertising channels such as the wireless Web.
“There will be some other things coming,” Thet said. “When you click a link, that link is passed over to our servers, and when it gets to the publisher’s mobile Web site we’re serving ads in those environments as well. So as an advertiser you can buy the experience and follow the user no matter where they go on the phone.”