Idearc Media Corp./Dallas, publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages and www.Superpages.com, has introduced a video platform that will enable small and medium-size businesses to play video ads at the Superpages website. The program is available on a beta basis in the Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco markets with a nationwide launch planned for later this year, according to Robyn Rose, VP of marketing at Idearc.
Idearc will use local production companies to make the videos and charge the businesses about $1,000. They’ll pay to play the videos on a cost-per-click or cost-per-call basis.
Thirty or 60 second video ads will be produced at merchant locations. Idearc is calling them “documercials,” because “they’re not traditional commercials,” Rose said. “They’re videos of the owner or the manager of the business explaining the benefits of the business.”
Superpages.com is a search site with users typing in a category and geographic location to find business names. Advertisers who pay the most for their clicks or calls will have their listings appear first. “The higher you bid, the more frequently the ad will appear in the category,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Marketing Intelligence/San Francisco. Rose said the service works like Google, except the premium listings appear in the middle of the page, not to the right.
Superpages syndicates its content to other sites, including MSN, Google and Yahoo, so the video ads it plays are distributed to other sites.
The service will enable small and mid-size businesses to include video advertising in their online phone listings. “A lot of small businesses have expressesd interest in video advertising on cable TV. We want to make sure they have the ability to do it online,” Rose said.
Sterling said Citysearch, a local search site that competes with Superpages, also offers video ads. But the site is geared to bar and restaurant listings, while Superpages covers more categories.
Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, Williamsburg, VA, a research firm that has projected the growth of local video advertising, said Idearc’s new service is part of a growing trend. “All the traditional media companies with deep assets–newspapers, radio stations, TV stations and yellow pages are rushing in,” he said. “The yellow pages are protecting their business by offering opportunities for video advertising. It’s similar to what the other media are doing.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More