By Rhonda Wickham
WirelessWeek - June 01, 2007
Reach and participation mark the new partnership between Mobile Posse and Ultramercial.
In one corner, Mobile Posse's technology inserts small banner advertisements onto the idle screens of mobile phones. When the banners are clicked on, they expand and facilitate a number of calls to action including click to call, click to purchase, click for information and click to opt-in. Customers are included on an opt-in basis to view ads in exchange for carrier-devised incentives.
In the other corner is Ultramercial, which creates online commercials that Internet viewers can watch in exchange for premium content. Viewers interact through full-page, multiscreen pages of the advertiser's message to arrive at their content. Ultramercial currently places ads with Economist.com, Harvard Business Review and Virgin Mobile. It also has particpated in campaigns for American Express, GE, Honda, Microsoft, Motorola and Time Warner.
Together, the two companies make a stronger play in the mobile advertising space.
According to Jon Jackson, Mobile Posse's founder and CEO, Mobile Posse offers Ultramercial its idle screen insertion technology while Ultramercial provides a high-profile advertiser base.
Together, the two companies rolled out their first campaign over Mother's Day weekend with a mobile advertisement from 1-800-FLOWERS. This initial project delivered advertisements promoting the 1-800-FLOWERS' Mother's Day special to consumers who had opted-in in exchange for discounts on wireless service fees. Rick Vandervoorn, Ultramercial's senior vice president of sales, said more than one-third of the recipients of the ad clicked on the banner to view the full screen and "a significant number" of those users used the click-to-call capability to take advantage of the offer.
Mobile Posse currently offers an incentive-based, opt-in program with Ohio regional carrier Revol. The campaign is available to subscribers in Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Toledo and Columbus Ohio and Indianapolis.
