CallGenie announced that in mid-November it will provide a self-serve advertising platform for KGB’s (formerly InfoNXX) 118 directory assistance (DA) subsidiaries in Europe.
When someone calls one of the 118 DA numbers in Europe she receives the details of the requested listing or other information back in a text message. Advertisers will be able to embed ads in these SMS messages, with links to mobile websites if they desire. Targeting will be allowed by business category and location.
118 numbers in Europe receive billions of calls annually so there’s considerable “inventory” here for advertisers to take advantage of. The audience that would do so is likely the same one that would do self-service search advertising online.
Embedding ads in text messages rather than playing audio advertising before a caller receives her listing is, in my view, a conceptually superior user experience — because it’s less obtrusive. It’s also more forgiving because if the displayed ads aren’t entirely relevant it’s not as much of a problem for the user. For example, if I’m looking for a sushi restaurant and get an audio ad for McDonald’s that potentially represents a bad experience. If that same scenario is played out and the McDonald’s ad appears in the text it’s not as annoying to me.
As of December, 2007 KGB declared in a public filing:
We currently have the number one market position in directory assistance in each of these markets, with an average 53% share of call volume in the U.K. and a 49% share of call volume in France. We estimate that we hold the number two market positions in Ireland and Switzerland with a 32% and 40% share of call volume, respectively.
The company also said, “To date, we have entered into annual contracts with over 7,000 small, medium and large businesses for our 118//Media service.”
Update: KGB emailed me the most recent share numbers for 118 for the UK and France: “In the UK we have a 57% market share of call volume and in France 51%.”