Though advertising on mobile devices is not new, search marketing firm iCrossing, New York, says it is the first search agency to devote a separate business unit to mobile advertising and search.
Launched today, iCrossing's mCrossing unit starts with five operations staffers and a dedicated sales team. It will focus on mobile search optimization, short message services marketing and tracking of campaigns.
“We see every day more content migrating to mobile phones. Wherever content goes, search is right behind it,” said Noah Elkin, director of industry relations at iCrossing.
Elkin expects some of iCrossing's larger clients, already using iCrossing search optimization and advertising services, to expand their marketing to mobile devices. In addition, it is talking with prospective clients on mobile campaigns.
MCrossing will provide location-aware services, letting ads target customers looking for a particular type of store or service. It also can set up e-commerce and billing capabilities so users can browse catalogs, redeem gift certificates and track orders from their cell phones.
The performance of the mobile campaigns will be tracked with mCrossing's proprietary Interest2Action reporting technology.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
