ULocate Communications has introduced of Where Ads, a hyper-local mobile advertising network that uses location-based targeting to increase the relevance of small businesses? ad campaigns.

Where is a mobile local search and recommendation service on all major smartphones with millions of users. Where Ads was initially built to deliver local ads to the Where audience, and has been opened to and is now running on mobile services such as Geocade, Jambase, MocoSpace and Superpages.com.

?The often mentioned but rarely realized opportunity in local is about delivering a local audience into the local merchant in real-time,? said Dan Gilmartin, vice president of marketing for Where at uLocate Communications, Boston.

?Opening our platform to third-party publishers will allow us to achieve the scale necessary to make this a reality even faster," he said.

?Further, industry analysts peg the value of this opportunity in the billions and until now, no one has done a good job at leveraging mobile and location to capitalize on this market.?

Where puts the best local information at users? finger tips with real-time reviews and special offers from local merchants.

Where is available on more than 100 mobile devices and a leading application on all major smartphone platforms and carriers.

Where Ads is designed to connect consumers with local merchants using location and context.

Intersection of mobile and local
With market forecasts against mobile search and advertising exceeding $2.6 billion, the opportunity in mobile is staggering and location is at the epicenter of the opportunity, according to Canaccord Adams.

Consumer reaction to locally and contextually relevant ads has been positive, according to uLocate.

The company claims that click-through rates on Where Ads have exceeded other mobile ads by as much as three times. This reinforces the notion that consumers will accept ads on their mobile device providing they add value.

?When thinking through optimal delivery of hyper-local ads, we have some unique assets,? Mr. Gilmartin said. ?First, we have aggregated a large volume of ads from a number of third-party companies that have relationships with the local merchants.

?Next, we take the context of the app experience and location of a user and through a series of algorithms to determine the best ad available for that user in that location,? he said. ?A good example is when a user is out and about and does a search for pizza.

?Based on their location, we can deliver ads from local restaurants based on the pizza keyword.?

Where will continue to add content in the form of offers and deals from local merchants and partner with select publishers on Where Ads.

The mobile ad units are banners and interstitials.

?We have taken a lot of time to build all of the banners and interstitials ourselves,? Mr. Gilmartin said. ?They are designed to look like content rather than an ad, and since they are contextual, they become highly relevant.

?We work with carriers on the distribution side of the Where application,? he said. ?We have signed with a dozen publishers, and are talking to more.

?We think that this is a solution that publishers will readily adopt since it improves the application user experience.?