JiWire + MetroFi = Location-based Ads
Posted by samc on July 18th, 2007Microsoft today announced an alliance with mobile advertising provider JiWire to begin placing ads on municipal Wi-Fi networks, starting with Portland, Oregon, and Oakland County, Mich.
The two companies would not disclose terms of the alliance but said they will place ads in a variety of styles, including so-called ultramercials, which are interactive ads that Wi-Fi users agree to watch in return for free network access.
A user might agree to watch an interactive ad for two minutes in order to get several hours or more of access, said Stefan Weitz (below, left), director of planning for Microsoft’s MSN Web portal.
The network in Portland, which is being built by MetroFi, already uses advertising to provide free Wi-Fi in parts of the city. But JiWire CEO Kevin McKenzie said his company can get a lot more money for its ads than MetroFi can get on its own. According to CNet, McKenzie said that JiWire charges advertisers $35 to $150 per CPM, or cost per 1,000 impressions. By contrast, he said that MetroFi advertising is probably getting CPMs in the range of $2 to $3 on its own.
How do they do it? JiWire has licensed the Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) from Skyhook Wireless. WPS uses known locations of Wi-Fi networks, rather than satellites or cell towers, to determine the precise location of Internet users.
Portland is MetroFi’s largest Wi-Fi deployment. The Mountain View, Calif.-based MetroFi has contracts to build municipal Wi-Fi networks in 12 other cities in the U.S., including Naperville, Ill., San Jose, Calif. and Riverside, Calif.
source : dailywireless.org
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