[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] 24/7 Media has formed a partnership with BTLookSmart in a move designed to spearhead LookSmart’s Asian push.
The companies will aim to provide an online advertising one-stop-shop across Asian countries including Japan and Korea, with expansion to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and New Zealand planned.
BTLookSmart is a global joint venture of LookSmart and British Telecommunications, which provides Internet search and directory content. The partnership will target its services at Web publishers, media outlets, content aggregators and ISPs aiming to provide “culturally sensitive and relevant research and information.”
John Butterworth, Managing Director of 24/7 Media Technology Solutions, was positive about the Asian market. “The region has impressed most online observers with a staggering takeup rate of 750 percent (to 2003), which is good news for the online advertising industry,” he said. “In 1999, the Asia-Pacific region spent $230 million dollars in online advertising, or 5.3 percent of the worldwide total.”
BTLookSmart advertisers will be able to use 24/7 technologies under the deal to stream ads to its customers based on their preferences.
Scott Neilson, vice president sales at BTLookSmart said 24/79s use of multi-byte keyword targeting – the ability to serve a targeted ad to people who type in a keyword search regardless of the language used – influenced the company9s choice.