In deal with loopt, cbs mobile to sell location-based ads

In a deal that recalls the late-90's enthusiasm for the geotargeting promise of newfangled wireless engineering, CBS plans to begin merchandising ads targeted to the vicinity or even block level. The capableness come through a data confederation with Loopt, a Mobile River social web that pinpoints users' location with the help of bearer.

The ad offer may well avoid the spam-stigma associated with directly messaging on telephone. That's because ads will only appear when opted-in Loopt users visit one of CBS' Mobile River properties, for case the Mobile River versions of CBS athletics and CBS News. When they do, CBS will recognize their exact location and have the option of helping an ad for services in the surrounding blocks.

Cyriac Roeding, EVP of CBS Mobile River, said his team will ab initio sell the placements to subject advertisers with local subdivision and franchises, and might later sell to local advertisers through CBS-owned stations and affiliates.

"Media agencies want to addition efficiency and effectivity of their ad spend, and evidently we're portion them with that," he said.

Loopt's service works using GPS as well as cell tower triangulation data from Sprint's network. For now dash and its Boost Mobile River unit are Loopt's only bearer partners, but the firm claims it will not long announce other bearer relationships. Until it does, subscribers to other networks can use neither Loopt's geo-targeting features or be served hyper-local ads. Since its launch in late 2006, Loopt said "100 of one thousand" of people have used the service, but declined to say how many of those users were returning.

Its deal with CBS marks Loopt's first foray into ad. A interpreter said consumers must explicitly opt in to receive geo-targeted ads from CBS advertisers. The Mobile River social web has not begun offer the local ad opt-in to new users, but plans to do so immediately.

The CBS/Loopt deal is not exclusive and Loopt is free to allow other ad sellers to use geo-location data supplied by its carrier partners. The company has no immediate plans to sign other ad sales agreements, however.

The technical limits on who can be served an ad raise the question of how many consumers CBS will be able to reach with its new mobile initiative. Roeding said his direct sales team will begin selling the location-based ads in Q2 as part of a "trial phase." CBS says its mobile properties brought in 5 million unique individuals during Q4 and recorded approximately 75 million page views.

"It's getting serious now," said Roeding, referring to mobile ad sales in general. "We're getting out of these testing stages and we're now talking to large brands about more significant dollars."

The next step he added is to simplify mobile ad buying. "We can't have this complexity that's almost endemic for mobile," he said. "Media agencies need to be able to book ad space with a simple call."

In addition to its direct sales force led by Rich Calacci, CBS Mobile now works with four mobile ad networks: Third Screen Media, Millenial Media, AdMob and Rhythm New Media.