US marketplace to sell advertising on bills and statements
Pitney Bowes has launched a new marketplace platform that will allow US transactional mailers to sell advertising space around their bills and statements. The MarketSpace Web platform works almost like a physical version of Google Adsense, positioning third-party advertising alongside content being read by relevant consumers.
Advertisers can purchase advertising based on certain demographic groups or geographic areas to which mailings are sent.
Pitney Bowes says its MarketSpace Web system can also help high-volume mailers identify suitable unused space on their statements or bills that could be suitable for advertising – without having to redesign a document to meet certain specifications.
Ramesh Ratan, president at Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies, said: “Our new MarketSpace Web platform provides a simple and easy way for high-volume transactional mailers to make their white space available on transactional statements to help increase revenue opportunities, while minimizing infrastructure investments.”
Security
While Google’s online content-advertising matchmaking service has prompted its fair share of concerns about data security, Pitney Bowes said its system operates in a secure environment in which customer data never leaves the document owner’s internal network.
Pitney is working on the MarketSpace platform with Media Horizons, Inc., a fellow Connecticut-based company that specialises in direct marketing, which already has a “significant” number of advertisers lined up to buy advertising space.
Mailers do have a final say on which advertisers to include on their mailings, before Pitney Bowes’ TransPromo system places the advertising on statements as part of its overall print production.
Alan Kraft, Media Horizons president, said the ability to target communications goes a long way toward building relationships between advertisers and consumers.
He said: “We believe that advertising on transactional statements with specific offers and messages that are of interest to the recipient can help build more effective relationships than inserts due to targeting opportunities and the longevity of statements.”
