Canpages taps Tagga Media to power mobile site offering

By Rimma Kats

April 2, 2010

Canadian search directory Canpages tapped Tagga Media to power its mobile Web sites and expand its local search reach.

Canpages advertisers will now receive mobile sites, mobile-optimized Web sites built on the Tagga platform, included as part of selected Canpages advertising programs. An advertiser can also buy a mobile site of its own for as little as $25 per month.

“Canpages is targeting a leadership position in their digital directories offering,” said Tiffany Chester, director of marketing at Tagga Media, Vancouver, BC. “They recognize the importance of mobile in local search. 

“To drive results for their customers in local search, they must have a complete mobile optimized offering,” she said.

Canpages is an independent local search and directories publisher in Canada.

Tagga Media Inc. delivers mobile marketing tools to professional marketers, helping them create, execute and track mobile SMS marketing, build mobile Web sites and run mobile advertising campaigns.

Mobile advice
Canpages is offering design assistance, expert advice and occasional refreshes as part of the mobile Web site offering. 

According to the company, end users should be presented with content specific to the mobile use-case rather than being forced to surf numerous pages. 

Tagga’s mobile Web site builder includes templates and guidelines for business, so it can create sites that are relevant and targeted to the mobile customer.

“The Tagga platform is built for agencies and publishers looking to offer mobile marketing to their advertisers,” Ms. Chester said. “We make it easy for them to add mobile to their offering, drive superior results for their customers, and add an incremental revenue stream to their business.”

According to Canpages, immediacy is the primary factor driving mobile Internet usage and behavior. In addition, mobile has impacted the way people organize their lives.

The company claims that businesses must have a mobile Web presence if they want to reach it wants to reach its on-the-go consumers.

Here is an example of a mobile site that Tagga Media worked on:

Company progress
Last year, Tagga closed a funding round of $348,000.

The company said that it was going to use the money to invest in sales and product development and further its position as the agency-grade mobile marketing solution (see story).

 “This deal brings the SMB market into mobile and makes having a mobile-optimized website a de facto standard for business,” Ms. Chester said.

“On the product side, we are releasing a bunch of new features and reporting improvements,” she said. “On the customer side, we've recently run campaigns for major brands in the U.S., Canada, and Asia in addition to rolling out a mobile offering for Hearst in major markets across the U.S.