T-Mobile USA begins massive online marketing push for G1

T-Mobile USA Inc. has tapped AOL’s Platform-A to promote the new G1 phone from Google Inc.
The ad network will deliver a billion impressions touting the G1 during a two-day campaign that ends tomorrow. The online ad buy will reach 81.5 million consumers, according to Platform-A, and the handset will “dominate a significant amount of AOL and other Platform-A inventory.”
The campaign is the single biggest purchase in Platform-A’s history, , according to AdAge.com.
Platform-A and T-Mobile declined to put a value on the buy, but industry sources estimated a buy of this size would cost about $1.5 million, according to AdAge.com.
The 1 billion impressions over two days is a significant portion of Platform-A’s total inventory. The network serves about 2.5 billion to 3 billion impressions a day and reaches 90% of U.S. internet users.
The ad buy is part of a major new push to build awareness for the G1, which went on sale Oct. 22.
It’s the biggest single online campaign since Google gave the G1 a precious link on the search page for several days after it launched.
The G1 is the first of many phones that will ultimately run on Google’s Android operating system, which will be the search firm’s bid to create a mobile advertising market. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said mobile advertising is a potential $50 billion market.
“The T-Mobile G1 offers a rich, accessible mobile Web experience for the masses so we want to drive that message to the broadest range of U.S. consumers possible,” said Brett Dennis, director of branded entertainment and media management at T-Mobile USA. “The groundbreaking experience of the T-Mobile G1 is really what motivated us to pursue this exceptional online advertising program.”