Amobee picks Canada’s Target Broadcast for mobile ad sales

January 24, 2008

Roger Wood, SVP and GM for the Americas region of Amobee

Canada’s Target Broadcast Sales Inc. will represent the sales channel for select mobile advertising inventory managed by Amobee Media Systems.

Target Broadcast has five sales offices in Canada. The Toronto company will sell mobile inventory and develop relationships with major advertising agencies representing media buyers.

“We expect this partnership to yield strong results in the volume of ad sales for our carriers in Canada,” said Roger Wood, senior vice president and general manager of Amobee Media Systems for the Americas region, San Francisco.

Amobee has a strategy of third-party media sales houses representing wireless-carrier advertising inventory, he said.

“Through this strategy, we are able to put trusted relationship managers in front of media buyers,” Mr. Wood said. “In most cases, these third-party media sales houses, such as Target, have relationships with agencies and their clients that stretch back many years.

“There is the additional benefit that these relationships allow for geographic coverage that is difficult for an advertising solutions company such as our own to replicate.”

Clients using Amobee’s ad-serving technology can insert ad impressions in content such as WAP browsing, video and music, SMS text messages, MMS and games.

Amobee recently signed a deal with wireless carrier Vodafone Spain for its interactive advertising service, Vodafone, Live!

Trends show that mobile advertising is gaining steady advertiser acceptance.

Market researcher Informa forecasts that mobile brand advertising worldwide will grow to $11 billion by 2011. Also, Pyramid Research expects that the number of mobile subscribers worldwide will grow from 2.8 billion today to 3.8 billion by 2010.

Mr. Wood said that the biggest challenge in mobile advertising is that wireless carriers are not known as media brands.

“Wireless companies today are significant distributors of entertainment,” Mr. Wood said.  “You enjoy music, images, video and you even access the Web via mobile phone.

“All of these entertainment formats have been traditionally supported by advertising and we feel the same will hold true as these entertainment products are increasingly distributed by wireless carriers,” he said.

“So, Amobee solves the technological puzzle of how to present ads in a targeted, relevant fashion to consumers via mobile phone and Target Broadcast will solve the problem of communicating the value of the mobile operator as a media brand capable of enormous reach and incredible precision.”