Ad Infuse eyes East Coast market

By Mickey Alam Khan

March 4, 2008

Heading east to going north

Ad Infuse Inc., a firm whose mobile platform delivers ads for Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever, BMW and Microsoft Corp., has launched East Coast operations targeting advertisers and mobile content publishers.

The opening of a New York office comes less than six weeks after the company announced an investment round of $12 million led by Japan’s Softbank Capital.

Executives in the New York office will share responsibility for advertising sales functions with Ad Infuse’s London outpost and San Francisco headquarters.

The New York office will pay particular attention to working with advertising agencies and advertisers.

Trevor Hamilton, director of national advertising sales, will run Ad Infuse’s New York office.

Ad Infuse claims inventory on its site has grown to more than 500 million monthly impressions. The company last year signed up 27 advertising partners and 48 content partners.

Marketers such as Entertainment Arts’ EA Mobile, Mini Cooper, Universal Pictures and Dell also use Ad Infuse’s platform to deliver ads and campaigns to mobile subscribers.

Meanwhile, the company has hired Steve Bair away from Jingle Networks, where he was responsible for deals with ad networks.

Based in San Francisco, Mr. Bair will handle content publisher relationships for Ad Infuse as vice president of business development – content publishers.