Third Screen snares Fox deal: Fox opts to self monitor advertising campaigns

Third Screen Media bagged yet another media customer, inking a deal with Fox to deliver ads to mobile phones.
Fox News will be the first franchise of the News Corp. subsidiary to use Third Screen’s MADX platform, which allows publishers to create and sell wireless ad inventories through video, the Internet and multimedia and text messaging. Fox will use Third Screen’s ad-delivery software, but not its targeted-advertising offering, opting instead to track marketing campaigns itself.
“In this case, Fox is going to be responsible for selling their own ad inventory,” said Jeff Janer, Third Screen’s chief marketing officer. “What’s interesting about the trend we’re seeing now is the major media companies are not only getting involved with mobile, but they’re saying, ‘We’re committed to this space. We’re going to devote resources to it.'”
The announcement marks another major win for Third Screen, an early player in the wireless advertising game. Other Third Screen customers include USA Today, MSN, The Weather Channel and MSNBC.com as well as several traditional advertising agencies.
Fox has been a pioneer in mobile video, offering both original made-for-mobile shows as well as wireless spinoffs from its hit TV shows. Rupert Murdoch’s network last year launched made-for-mobile episodes of its “Prison Break” program, inserting pre-roll commercials as well as product placements for Toyota, which helped underwrite the effort.
But while wireless TV continues to garner headlines, most advertisers looking to approach mobile users are placing marketing messages on the wireless Web, according to Janer.
“The fact of the matter is that there’s just not a big enough market where an advertiser is interested in advertising in anything other than the mobile Internet,” Janer said. “There are somewhere around 30 million users (on the wireless Web). With video, you’re talking about numbers in the 5 million range.”
Third Screen recently unveiled a partnership with Telephia, a San Francisco-based market research firm, in an effort to deliver targeted mobile advertising campaigns. The companies hope to allow advertisers to reach specific users based on demographic factors, location and other factors.
“What we’ve been working with Telephia on is starting to categorize audiences by their demographic makeup,” said Janer. “This notion of defining who your audience is, having that tracked and validated by a third party research firm, that’s what makes the market move. That’s what the advertisers want.”