Through location-based advertising, CBS and Loopt believe they can hit the sweet spot of mobile website ad delivery.
CBS has been pushing the digital boundaries with their web properties and other initiatives. They sponsored ad-supported wireless Internet access in Manhattan, free for users, in 2007, for example.
Their CBS Mobile unit took another step forward, this time in the realm of advertising. Through a deal with Loopt, which bills itself as a service that turns a mobile phone into a “social compass,” CBS Mobile announced today it will roll out the first location-based mobile Web ads in the US.
CBS Mobile wants to accomplish what we expect major Internet players like Google and Microsoft wish to do: target customers as close as possible to advertisers and prompt the consumer to engage in some sweet commerce.
“If you’re hungry and we take into account your location and time of day to display an ad for a restaurant offering free appetizers during happy hour, we’ve really blurred the line between advertising and content,” Sam Altman, CEO and co-Founder of Loopt, said in a statement.
The two companies said ads would appear on CBS Mobile and Sports sites, and on Loopt properties. They also touted privacy aspects of the service, saying they will serve ads anonymously and not store location history.
Loopt will make a real impact when it can extend its location-based ad product to other popular mobile web sites. The quality of their dealmaking will make a difference, as it looks likely people will use mobile web search services from the conventional web sites they know already.
