Online marketing firm Mediaplex will add location-based targeting to its
MOJO product, thanks to a new partnership with European technology company
RealMapping.
According to terms of the deal, of which financial details were not
disclosed, San Francisco-based Mediaplex will integrate RealMapping’s City
service into its Mobile Java Objects technology, or MOJO.
Once that’s done, MOJO — which enables marketers to link ads and content
with marketing and pricing databases to deliver personalized banners,
offers, e-mails and wireless messages — will be able to send content to a
Web surfer or mobile user based on their location.
Amsterdam-based RealMapping uses Internet Protocol targeting software,
based on a database of four billion global IP addresses, to pinpoint a
user’s location down to a specific city.
The deal emerges out of a prior agreement by the firms that made
RealMapping a preferred vendor to Mediaplex of its earlier country-based
targeting software. It’s a boon to startup RealMapping, which is seeking to
boost its product’s acceptance in the U.S.
It’s also good for Mediaplex, whose main value proposition is being able
to provide dynamic content to the appropriate user. For instance, MOJO can
detect a returning Web surfer and deliver a banner that features a product’s
discounted price, based on its current availability. That dynamically
generated content will soon be able to include language- and region-
specific options.
“The ability to target a specific city can be crucial to meeting the
business goals of a digital advertising campaign,” said Mediaplex chief
technology officer Mark Joseph. “Our partnership with RealMapping City
provides Mediaplex clients with the best technology available for CRM and
geo- city targeting.”
The system isn’t flawless, however. RealMapping promises only that City
will work for major cities and metropolitan areas in the U.S., Canada, and
Western Europe. However, the system should still be able to accurately
determine a user’s country and probable language. And upcoming products
should determine users’ connection speeds and glean more information about
the company or institution from which users are connecting.
But despite the problems, RealMapping chief executive Sjoerd van Gelderen
said the system should provide positive results for marketers.
“Customizing the message per the targeted demographic will make certain
key information is reaching the appropriate audience and help ensure a more
successful marketing campaign,” van Gelderen said.
Additionally, RealMapping says that its technology faces few privacy
issues, because it doesn’t glean more information than users are already
providing on the Web — since every time users visit Web sites, their IP
addresses are typically logged.
The company also said it protects users because it does not link IP
addresses, country or city data with users’ names or e-mail addresses that
it might have through opt-in newsletters or registrations.
It also points to the fact that most ISPs give Web surfers different IP
addresses each time they log onto the Internet, which makes it still harder
to link personal information with a specific IP address.
“We don’t see privacy issues here as an issue, because we can’t map it to
a specific user,” van Gelderen said. “It’s the same level of privacy you
have reading a local advertisement in The New York Times.
Van Gelderen added that RealMapping plans to expand its client base into
territorial digital rights management, Web site statistical analysis, and
fraud detection for e-commerce transactions — for instance, raising flags
if a user pays with a U.S. credit card, cites a home address in another
country, and orders shipping to a third country.
