1020, named after the public safety radio code for location, announced that online advertising guru Rich LeFurgy has joined its board of directors.
LeFurgy, principal at Archer Advisors, is founding chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
After a 17-year ad agency career, LeFurgy started making an impact on the online advertising field in 1995 as head of sales at Starwave and later at the Walt Disney Internet Group, which included ESPN.com, NFL.com, NBA.com and ABCnews.com among its properties. He spent six years as the IAB’s first chairman and helped found the Future of Advertising Stakeholders (FAST) and the San Francisco Bay Area Interactive Group (SFBIG).
1020 is the developer of Placecast, an online advertising network that targets advertising based on the physical location of a user’s Internet connection, whether that be fixed, mobile or Wi-Fi. Its technology works across Web, WAP, video and downloadable GPS applications.
In the mobile ad universe, a lot of buyers are focused on click-through rates because it’s a uniform measurement. “Doing the type of stuff we’re doing – focused on targeting a smaller group of people but being sure they are the right group of people for the customer – you can measure engagement through the ad itself,” said Anne Bezancon, the CEO of 1020.
As an example, Bezancon cited the big message boards at sports stadiums. But in the case of Placecast, attendees to a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden would see a different ad than an audience there for a Celine Dion concert. The Placecast system also can deliver location-based ads for a car dealership, complete with addresses for local dealers and the name of the person on call for the next four hours.