Mobile Search: JumpTap CMO Reveals Strategy
Following up today on the recent and significant tie-up between JumpTap and Pinch Media, an analytics and advertising company for iPhone applications (which MSG covered here). The two companies have launched an ad network allowing developers to monetize their iPhone App Store applications. I contacted Paran Johar, JumpTap Chief Marketing Officer, for details about the deal - and got that and more: a progress report on JumpTap’s search advertising platform. Special thanks to Paran for the exclusive briefing and to Julie Ginches, JumpTap’s new Director of Marketing Communications, for setting it up on short notice.
I’m excited about having the inside track on JumpTap’s new strategy, but I must also respect Paran’s request not to name the “product” or provide too much detail. Fortunately, the new partnership with Pinch Media gives some clear indications of where all this is going, so I’ll start there.
Pinch Media provides an analytics and advertising package which is used by to date by some 300 developers making apps for the iPhone. As Paran sees it, the deal - which provides JumpTap exclusive access to the inventory - is about providing those application developers “access to advertisers, agencies and brands.” JumpTap will sell it to advertisers and “target those ads based on the data we get passed through the [Pinch] analytics package.”
Paran is bullish about iPhone and sees other platforms and opportunities where JumpTap could bring its network of advertisers in for a cut of the action. “We think the iPhone is a massive opportunity and that’s why we did this deal….But we see applications as content and that hits our core competency right square in the center. Anytime we can monetize content - widget content, game content, voice content, mobile content - we are interested and will prioritize based on the opportunity.”
And here’s the part where we have a glimpse of JumpTap’s wider ambitions. “This content (widgets/apps) is essentially part of a broader page that is being served up and that’s where our search engine can work with the context of that page and go beyond search to provide contextual targeting [for the advertising].” Read between the lines, and Paran’s statement speaks volumes about JumpTap’s new direction and determination. “It’s all about using the right information at the right time to select the right ad.”
Granted, contextual targeting was part of JumpTap’s messaging from the start. But back then it had to do with delivering more relevant search results to user queries. Today when JumpTap talks about contextual targeting it is still very much about the user experience, but it also refers to the quality of search advertising.
Put another way, the end-game is about making sure the user appreciates both the search results and the display advertising that accompanies them. To achieve this JumpTap has quietly and cleverly reshuffled its capabilities mix.
Read the entire post on Peggy’s blog MSearchGroove HERE.
