Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/07/11/telefonica_hires_brainstorm_for_mobile_marketing_platform/

Telefonica inks deal with mobile ads platform: Find your customer? There's an API for that

Better get in early before the ad spend's gone

By Simon Rockman

Posted in Networks, 11th July 2014 15:44 GMT

Spanish telco Telefonica has looked to Brainstorm Mobile to supply it with a platform to roll out its global marketing strategy.

The Brainstorm platform is also behind Weve, which is the UK consortium of mobile operators working in mobile marketing. By working directly with Brainstorm, Telefonica can use the service outside the UK and indeed it has already been successfully deployed into seven of Telefónica’s territories.

This contract will see it being deployed across Telefónica’s operating business in Europe and Latin America.

It will be interesting to see how O2/Telefonica works with Brainstorm in the UK – where it has the choice to get to the platform either through Weve or directly with the service provider.

Brainstorm’s Dragon mobile marketing platform is designed for personalised location-based marketing campaigns.

Dragon can take any input for which an API is available: a customer’s location, the temperature, a sports result, door lock, infra-red sensor et cetera.

It’s quite widely used in the mobile industry. Tesco is using it for things like a “rate your driver” service for home deliveries, and it has also been licensed by Singtel subsidiary Amobee.

Jason Tunstall, director of mobile advertising at Telefónica, commented:

“We’ve seen tremendous change across the advertising landscape in recent years, with personalisation and data coming into play. Technology is fuelling this change, giving marketing the opportunity to deliver absolute personalisation and ultimately delivering better engagement and accountability.

"The technology platforms we utilise, such as Brainstorm's, provide innovative ways for brands to engage with our customers through a range of channels.”

Donald Stuart, CEO of Brainstorm, said, “We are delighted to have won the contract with Telefónica, who are one of the most innovative and exciting companies in the mobile marketing space.”

Stuart claims his technology is channel-agnostic, and says users can be contacted through text, email or whichever medium the client chooses. He says, however, that he has seen little demand for things like social media contact – it's fashionable, he says, but not really how most of Brainstorm's customers wish to communicate. ®