PODBRIDGE AND INGENIO PARTNER TO BRING PAY PER CALL ADVERTISING TO PODCASTS FOR THE FIRST TIME
Pay Per Call Model to Deliver Advertisers and Publishers New Value in Podcasting
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA & SAN FRANCISCO - June 15, 2006 - Podbridge, Inc., a podcast audience measurement and advertising network, and Ingenio, Inc. the pioneer and leading provider of Pay Per Call® advertising, today announced their partnership to integrate Ingenio Pay Per Call ad listings within Podbridge's podcast network. The industry-first combination of Pay Per Call and podcasting will provide Ingenio advertisers with the benefits of reaching customers directly within highly targeted podcasts that follow the customer whether they are connected to the Internet or not - and pay only when a consumer takes action in the form of a call to the advertiser's place of business. In addition, Ingenio will be able to leverage Podbridge's accurate metrics to enable granular audience targeting based on a listener's location, age and gender.
"Podcasting is increasingly becoming a compelling new channel to reach a captive consumer audience," said Marc Barach, Chief Marketing Officer, Ingenio. "Today's announcement further demonstrates our strategy to build out our advertising network to incorporate innovative, highly-qualified distribution for our advertisers - both online and offline. By partnering with Podbridge, we are making it easy for our advertisers to get on the ground floor of a very exciting new ad medium."
"This deal shows the flexibility and versatility of Pay Per Call for both advertisers and publishers across media," said Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence. "And as traditional, local media markets fragment, performance-based platforms such as Pay Per Call become increasingly relevant and important for marketers."
The Podbridge service, based on sophisticated technologies for audience measurement and ad insertion, provides the unique ability to track the number of listens in addition to tracking downloads, insert ads on a dynamic basis, place ads by demographics and geography, rotate multiple ads, and manage campaign budgets. In addition, Podbridge enables a variety of new podcast-specific advertising formats and allows for the strategic positioning of ads in a podcast for maximum exposure. Podbridge can also refresh and rotate ads, based on the consumer's listening habits and ad expiration dates.
"Our partnership with Ingenio delivers more ways for advertisers to reach their customers through podcasts, and enables podcasters to tap into a broader pool of advertising dollars. As advertisers are looking for more measurable and results-oriented advertising options, Podbridge and Ingenio now offer the first truly accountable ad model for podcasting," said Murgesh Navar, Podbridge's founder and CEO.
How Does Pay Per Call Work in a Podcast?
For Consumers
Consumers within the Podbridge network can access free premium podcasts that offer highly targeted advertising. First, consumers select premium content on the podcaster's website, and then click the "get podcast" button, which will install a small Podbridge iTunes plug-in in a matter of seconds. After answering four simple questions that provide basic, anonymous information, users can obtain free podcasts. Consumers can then take immediate measurable action on any Ingenio ads of interest by simply calling the number within the ad.
For Advertisers
Pioneered by Ingenio, Pay Per Call is a search-based advertising model that allows any business, including local merchants, or any businesses with or without a website, to generate targeted phone calls instead of website clicks from their online ads, and pay only for calls received. Advertisers visit www.ingenio.com to set up an account and create an ad listing in minutes. Advertisers then have access to the Ingenio Pay Per Call Advertising Network, which represents more than one billion queries monthly, and includes leading partners like AOL® Search, AOL Mobile, InfoSpace and Podbridge. Ingenio will then syndicate audio ads into the specific podcast categories that are most appropriate to an advertiser's business. Ingenio advertisers only pay if a phone call is generated from the ad.
Ingenio ads will become available within the Podbridge network starting in June 2006.