Alcatel-Lucent (Paris: ALU)(NYSE: ALU) and 1020 Placecast, the leading cross-platform location-based advertising solution provider, today announced they will jointly provide mobile service providers and brands with a unique, location-based service - hosted by Alcatel-Lucent - that delivers highly relevant messaging and advertising to mobile consumers who opt into the service.
Together, 1020 Placecast and Alcatel-Lucent are offering an end-to-end service that enables service providers to support brands in reaching their target audiences wherever they are in innovative new ways. As part of this service, 1020 Placecast leverages its unique ad engine to weave location information into highly relevant messages -- enabling brands and advertising agencies with scalable, proximity marketing campaigns that will be pushed to consumers' mobile devices in SMS and MMS formats. Alcatel-Lucent, leveraging its Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP) as a hosted service, tracks opt-in subscribers' locations on behalf of the service provider and pushes mobile content to the subscriber when and where is appropriate - based on the advertising campaign developed and managed by the 1020 Placecast platform.
The network service can support millions of subscribers -- far more than any competing product on the market today -- making proximity marketing campaigns for service providers and marketers a reality. It creates an environment where service providers and advertisers can partner in developing and delivering a new generation of revenue-generating mobile advertising services to customers -- a market that is expected to reach nearly $5 billion in U.S. service provider revenue by 2011 according to the report "Mobile Advertising: The Service Provider Revenue Opportunity" published by Heavy Reading Research.
Thanks to this joint offering, mobile service providers can, for example, offer consumers an opt-in service where they will receive a mobile message offering a discount at a consumer's favorite retailer around the corner on their way to work. The message could include the store address, phone number, proximity to the customer, and other brand and carrier developed content. For subscribers, receiving messages and advertising from brands subscribers care about - at the time and place they are most interested in getting them - enhances the mobile experience. By maximizing advertising effectiveness in reaching brands' target audiences, it generates increased advertising spend with service providers.
"One of the key benefits of mobile marketing is the precise location targeting inherent in mobile devices and communication networks," says Michael Boland, program director, mobile local media, for The Kelsey Group, a leading provider of local advertising research, analysis, data and competitive metrics. "Pulling together Alcatel-Lucent's location service with Placecast's location-based ad serving engine should create a greater ability to deliver more relevant ads that perform better."
Adds Gani Nayak, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Rich Communication business, "This offering enables carriers, and the brands they support, to create a highly-relevant and personalized experience for mobile users while also delivering immediate return on investment. It combines Alcatel-Lucent's best-in-class geo-fencing technology -- which supports millions of virtual fences -- with Placecast's leading location-based ad platform to launch large-scale, proximity-based mobile marketing campaigns."
The turnkey service, available in North America, seamlessly delivers messages and advertisements to any mobile device and screen without a capital investment by service providers. Subscribers simply sign-up for the service and select the kinds of messages and offers they want to receive. Their privacy is protected because their exact location is never revealed -- only the fact that they have entered a designated geographical area.
"Alcatel-Lucent's technology allows us to trigger the delivery of a tailored marketing message to a subscriber who has opted into the service when they enter a specific zone," said Alistair Goodman, CEO of 1020 Placecast. "This enables a direct connection from mobile to the physical world. We're excited to partner with such an established solutions provider and offer carriers the best targeting and delivery in location-based mobile advertising and marketing."
About 1020 Placecast, Inc.
1020, Inc. is the developer and owner of PlacecastTM Media, the first online advertising solution to target highly sought-after audiences using location-based information across the Web, mobile, and Wi-Fi. 1020's groundbreaking Placecast service recently earned the company the "OnMedia Top 100" Award, given to game-changing companies in the marketing, branding, advertising, and PR industries. Current partners include NAVTEQ and current advertisers include Microsoft Windows Mobile, FedExOffice, Avis and Budget Rental Cars and Hyatt Hotels. 1020 is funded by Voyager Capital and Onset Ventures. For more information about Placecast, visit www.placecast.net.
About the Alcatel-Lucent Geographic Messaging Services Platform
Alcatel-Lucent's unique 5130 Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP), incubated within Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, enables carriers to reach mobile users and offer automatic delivery of messages (i.e. coupons, promotions, information) that are relevant to their immediate physical environment. Provided as a hosted service at Alcatel-Lucent's Naperville, IL facility, GMSP is the first truly scalable push-messaging (geofencing) system that delivers messages based on geographic targeting. Content is only sent once a user has entered the target zone - or geofence perimeter. Subscribers opt-in to the types of content and alerts they want to receive. To learn more, go to www.alcatel-lucent.com/gmsp.
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com.