The Hertz Corp. has partnered with HopStop for a major online and mobile advertising campaign spanning both companies? operations in London, Paris, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington.

Global car sharing club Connect by Hertz and HopStop, a provider of pedestrian navigation and mobile transit services, are teaming up to help city dwellers get around more easily and cross-promote each other?s digital platforms.

?Connect by Hertz is all about providing mobility solutions, especially to those who need short term transportation options,? said Robert Stuart, senior vice president of global sales at Hertz, Park Ridge, NJ. ?The HopStop partnership enables us to enhance our members' experience and offer a unique navigation functionality so that finding cars nearby, and getting walking and/or public transportation directions, is as easy as can be.

?Connect by Hertz also sees this partnership encouraging members, existing and potentially new members, to download the new Connect by Hertz iPhone app,? he said.

?Connect by Hertz's target demographic is similar to that of HopStop?young, on-the-go, active urbanites who are looking for environmentally friendly alternative forms of transportation?one of the main reasons we're excited about this partnership.?

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.?s Hertz, which claims to be world's largest general-use airport car rental brand, operates from approximately 8,400 locations in 146 countries worldwide.

Connect by Hertz helps promote public transportation usage and car pooling with the goals of reducing congestion and parking problems while helping the environment.

SMS for alerts
Upon making a reservation, each member receives an email confirmation on bookings as well as a SMS alert indicating the reserved car?s license plate and location.

To unlock and engage the vehicle, members simply need to sweep their card over the car?s radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader.

A location-based service currently available in 26 major markets, HopStop provides door-to-door walking and mass-transit directions to city residents and tourists.

The company is building the first national network to facilitate and encourage intra-city as well as city-to-city travel by aggregating numerous mass transit systems into one streamlined navigational user experience.

HopStop also offers point-to-point directions, and the locations of nearby subway and bus stops, remotely on mobile devices via an array of mobile applications, including an iPhone application and mobile site at http://m.hopstop.com.

Targeting urbanites on the go
As part of a plan to offer more travel options to each other?s service, HopStop has built access to hourly car rentals into its navigation application that provides people with public transportation and walking directions.

In addition, ConnectbyHertz.com is providing its customers with HopStop-powered door-to-door directions to pick up and drop off their car at Connect by Hertz locations.

With the new service, a New Yorker looking to travel from downtown Manhattan to Nyack in Rockland County has the option to travel via subway and bus, which HopStop.com estimates to be a two-hour one-way trip.

By clicking on the ?cars by the hour? button, a HopStop user can save time by renting a car for a few hours from Connect By Hertz, and find the Connect By Hertz location that is closest to his or her starting point.

Connect by Hertz is also offering HopStop users extra incentive to try car-sharing and join Connect by Hertz?s growing membership by offering a free one-year membership in the Connect Program, plus an $80 driving credit when they join using Promotion Code ?HOPSTOP.?

Hip HopStop
Connect by Hertz is running a mobile ad campaign in HopStop's iPhone application to help educate HopStop users about the benefits of Connect by Hertz and encourage users to download Connect's application.

?I believe the primary challenge that we assist ConnectByHertz with is user acquisition,? said Joe Meyer, president/CEO of HopStop, New York. ?As a platform, HopStop is indifferent as to what form of transportation its users take.

?At the end of the day, millions of urbanites are coming to HopStop.com?and to our mobile apps?each month to get walking and mass-transit directions, but they also come to HopStop for alternatives to mass transit such as taxi/cab, limo/sedan and other ways to get from point A to point B, including cars-by-the-hour services such as Connect by Hertz,? he said.

?What we care about is providing our users with as many viable and efficient urban transportation options as possible, and by partnering with Connect by Hertz we're able to offer another form of pedestrian navigation to our users, who in-turn can become customers for CBH.?

Mr. Meyer said that mobile is the perfect platform through which HopStop and Connect by Hertz can reach new users and service existing ones.

HopStop and ConnectByHertz users are inherently mobile?they are active and on-the-go?and social, and the best way to reach them and to provide our respective services is through mobile devices, when their users are out-and-about town and in need of the companies? services.

?In that regard, mobile is a perfect extension of our respective and highly complementary services,? Mr. Meyer said.

Final Take

/>