Relevvant, a mobile ads firm targeting the enterprise retail segment, today announced a software tool that uses social, location, and purchasing data to target ads on mobile devices that the firm believes achieves a greater level of granularity than existing mobile advertising platforms.
In its press release, Relevvant’s CEO, Craig Davis said, “The biggest challenge brands are running into when engaging diverse audiences is creating both meaning and relevance tailored to individual consumers.” He went on to point out that what he believes sets this solution apart from the mobile ad pack is that the Relevvant platform, “Targets consumers using psychographic, social, demographic and location factors.”
Given recent predictions made by private equity firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers regarding the near-term revenue growth potential for mobile ads, and the companies supplying those solutions, the timing Relevvant’s announcement seems serendipitous.
While leveraging a confluence of meaningful data to provide context to individuals seems to be an obvious key to cracking the mobile ads code, Relevvant’s continuous optimization capabilities, in addition to a well-crafted dashboard interface might be the features that resonates most with potential customers.
Clearly, there is competition that will lay claim to providing the same capabilities as Relevvant is announcing. For example, AdiQuity and inmobi both tout ad optimization based on real-time analytics. However, during a demo of the platform featuring a live campaign, the integration of all the capabilities touted by Relevvant was intuitive and easy to understand; a factor that should not be overlooked when selling to non-technical marketing types.
Bottom Line
Though my Psychology 101 class didn’t teach me enough about psychographic, social and demographic factors, I do understand location. I also understand getting annoyed at random, irrelevant ads – even if I opted in. If Relevvant’s solution can succeed where other mobile ad platforms have yet to pull all of the pieces of data together to provide meaningful context – and utility – to mobile ads, then its solution should garner attention.
