24/7 Media Inc.'s wireless advertising network will provide advertisers with access to 31 vertically segmented wireless Web sites in the rapidly advancing European market.
“We decided to initially focus on Europe because it is so far advanced and its consumers are relatively familiar with Wireless Application Protocol and Short Message Servicing services,” said Antti Eranne, strategic development director at 24/7 Media Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The firm has not established sales goals yet, Eranne said, although he added that there are more than 1 million WAP-enabled mobile devices in Europe and roughly 150 million SMS-enabled mobile devices. The 24/7 network will reach any wireless Web device, such as mobile phones and hand-held computers.
A spokesman for online advertising services firm DoubleClick Inc., a rival of 24/7, said it currently does not have a wireless network, but it is beta-testing its wireless ad-serving technology, which will enable advertisers to serve banner ads and interstitials via wireless Web devices.
There are more than 10,000 Web sites that have been reformatted to be placed on wireless devices, according to Eranne. 24/7's wireless ad-serving technology allows the firm to place banner ads, microsites and text links on the WAP sites within its network. The firm also can attach text ads to text messages, Eranne said, to direct consumers toward advertisers' Web sites or call centers or simply to create name recognition and brand awareness.
Eranne said that targeting techniques are currently being developed, but he would not be specific.
Meanwhile, one of 24/7's first and largest mobile phone text messaging, or so-called short messaging partners, is Kauppalehti Online, a major Finnish business newspaper, which provides subscribers with messages about stock market performance and exchange rates. One of 24/7's advertising clients, eQ online, a Finnish Web-based brokerage service, ran a three-week campaign in which text messages attached to Kauppalehti alerts invited consumers to call eQ's hotline or access its WAP site through WAP-enabled phones. The results of this campaign were not available.
Dressmart.com, a European shopping site for menswear, ran a wireless Web campaign using 24/7's ad serving technology, in which wireless Web users could access a dressmart microsite containing information about dressmart services or visit www.dressmart.com for special wireless Web offers.
The 24/7 network is divided vertically into sports, finance, weather and entertainment. Errane declined to specify pricing.
