Telecoms firm Primus saw a 7.5 percent click-through rate for a mobile banner campaign centered on its Global Talk long distance service.

LSN Mobile Technologies and Ad Infuse Inc. advertised the Primus Globe Talk product on the Local Wireless ad network for approximately three weeks starting in late April. The goal was to drive engagement, awareness and purchase among Hispanics.

"Unlike search and online advertising, serendipity does not apply to mobile marketing," said Adriana Avakian, director of partner marketing at Primus, McLean, VA.

"In migrating our product offering to highly targeted demographics, we clearly see the need to move from eyeballs to audiences with more compelling, relevant offers that, like our GlobeTalk product, broaden our customer's options to reach out to people and places that matter to them," she said. "Ad Infuse and Local Wireless helped Primus execute upon these objectives."

Globe Talk is Primus' long distance service that lets customers make international calls from home and mobile phones to 19 Latin American destinations, starting at 3 cents per minute.

LSN and Ad Infuse ran the banners ads for three weeks in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami.

Consumers checking for local content on Local Wireless were exposed to the ad. LSN tracked all the metrics. Interested consumers were given a click-to-call option once they clicked through the banner. By selecting the click-to-call option, consumers were connected immediately to a Primus call center to sign up for Globe Talk.

"I'm excited about the Primus activity," said David Spear, executive vice president of sales and marketing at LSN Mobile Technologies, Atlanta. "The results validate the power of a one-to-one marketing relationship that mobile offers to products like Globe Talk. Our large and growing Hispanic audience certainly is a fit for Primus."

In the first 10 hours of the campaign, the click-through rate was 13 percent. At the end of day 1, it was 10 percent and after the campaign was complete, the click-through rate was averaging 7.5 percent.

Primus was satisfied with the outcome of this initiative, given that the average click-through rate of this campaign was nearly eight times that of any normal online advertising campaign, the company claims.

"Working closely with Primus, we were able to help craft a specific mobile strategy based on their target audience and local marketing needs," said Carol Jackson, vice president of global sales at Ad Infuse, San Francisco.

"Through that process, it became clear that our content partner Local Wireless could deliver best on those objectives and the results speak to the high value of the partnership between our three companies," she said.