24/7 Real Media Deploys Trade Campaign

Web ad player 24/7 Real Media is preparing to launch an ambitious business-to-business ad campaign with both traditional and online media buys, using specialized creative to promote its divisions separately.

Beginning in early April, ads promoting 24/7’s offerings will appear in print and online industry publications, as well as in direct marketing e-mails and traditional direct mailings. Targeting advertisers, marketers and agencies, the campaign will tout the firm’s separate divisions but will also seek to communicate 24/7’s total offerings.

It will be the first major ad initiative from the New York-based ad network and technology firm since its formation in October 2001, through the merger of 24/7 Media and Real Media.

24/7 Real Media said the advertisements will promote the benefits of working with an experienced consulting organization when deploying interactive campaigns. The company also hopes to increase cross selling between its five divisions, a trend that the company says has taken off recently.

The internally developed ads feature a “little black book” metaphor, which associates getting customers with setting up a date. The creative for one of the print executions consists of a ring binder address book that displays information about several of 24/7’s network properties and marketing list operators. The accompanying copy reads, “You think your little black book is impressive… you should see ours.”

Below the picture are two more lines: “The targeted, permission based e-mail addresses you’ve been looking for… all in one book. Ours.”

The company said that details will change from one ad to the next, depending on which of 24/7’s offerings are featured. However, the “black book” theme will remain consistent through the ads.

“‘The black book of solutions’ is a useful metaphor, and it’s also ringing true to our customers who want a one-stop shop,” said David Moore, 24/7 Real Media’s chairman and chief executive.

Other insertions are likely to include testimonials from Open AdStream customers that saved money after switching over from DoubleClick’s DART technology, success stories from the firm’s iPromotions division, and demonstrations of the diversity of the 24/7 Real Media network.

Beginning in early April, the ads will appear in traditional trade publications such as AdWeek, MediaWeek, Crain’s B2B Marketing, Target Magazine, DMNews, and iMarketing News.

The company has also booked banner campaigns on multiple INT Media Group (the parent company of internetnews.com) Web properties, e-mail marketing campaigns, and traditional direct marketing via the US Postal Service and FedEx.

The company’s last comparable ad initiative came almost a year ago, in June 2001. At that time, a pre-merger 24/7 Media ran a similar campaign across popular industry publications in a bid to increase its appeal to ad agencies. At the time of the launch, 24/7 Media said the blitz signaled the beginning of an expansion of its advertising program.

At the time, Jay Aber, then 24/7 Media’s senior vice president of marketing said: “It’s the start of us getting far more active and aggressive in the trade advertising world. As everyone sits back and says we should be trimming our marketing budget, we’re feeling exactly the opposite.”

However, no follow-up to the campaign was devised, as the company focused on restructuring and cost-cutting. During the past 12 months, the company has sold off its IMAKE subsidiary, its Exactis e-mail unit, its Sabela ad serving division, and its European media network. (Through the merger with Real Media, however, the company again picked up representation deals with sites in Europe.)

“We have been deliberately quiet for a long time as we completed restructuring,” Moore said. “Now that it has been completed, we are going to communicate to all parts of the marketplace on a regular basis going forward.”

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