Eventful Inc., a service which operates local events Web site Eventful.com, has selected place-based interactive media company 1020 Placecast to power its ad-serving technology.

Placecast helps Eventful to segment site visitors based on the location of specific events in a play to increase advertising revenue opportunities through location-based inventory. Placecast adds a new dimension to audience targeting by using location-based information provided by publisher sites.

"The brands we work with are leading national/regional brands primarily interested in reaching their desired audiences more efficiently to reduce the wasted impressions in their media buy, while increasing engagement and subsequently conversions," said Blair Swedeen, vice president of market development for 1020 Placecast, San Francisco.

"Placecast's enhanced targeting means we find the type of person that is most relevant for their campaign more effectively, while our ability to deliver a customized ad based on location increases the response rates, enhancing our customers' ROI," he said.

In addition to targeting, Placecast's dedicated sales team collaborates with Eventful's direct sales force.

Eventful lets its community of consumers discover, promote, share and create local events throughout the world.

Consumers can select from more than 6 million events, from concerts and sports to performing arts and kids' activities.

Eventful's Demand service enables more than 50,000 performers to empower millions of their fans to influence where they perform.

Eventful's target demographic is active 18-34-year-olds.

Location-based targeting allows advertisers to deliver messages customized to a specific audience and a specific location, increasing the relevancy of these ads and therefore the value of the publisher's inventory.

Using proprietary targeting algorithms, Placecast delivers relevant ads by matching publisher data with information specific to an event venue in which a user expresses interest.

For example, a consumer checking Eventful's site for the next Coldplay concert in New York would see an ad for Scion with the address and link to the closest Scion dealership, while a consumer looking for outdoor activities in San Francisco would see a localized ad for Subaru.

Placecast has run campaigns for brands such as Hyatt Hotels, FedEx Kinko's, Amtrak and Microsoft Windows Mobile.

A campaign Placecast ran for a leading software company was designed to drive traffic to a microsite across 5 DMAs and yielded a click-through rate of 2-4 percent, depending on the creative rotated throughout the campaign.

"Compare this to standard Web CTRs of 0.1-0.2 percent and you can see the resulting improvement from targeting leveraging detailed information about different locations, while not consuming or using any personally identifiable user information," Mr. Swedeen said.

Placecast is currently deployed across Eventful's online advertising inventory and email programs, delivering targeted audiences to advertisers and customized messages to consumers.

Placecast combines location information from multiple sources, including user-entered ZIP codes, Eventful Web page content and GPS for mobile devices such as Apple's iPhone.

Placecast specializes in selling cross-channel campaigns which can include mobile, Web, e-mail and WiFi ad inventory.

Placecast delivers standard ad units such as Flash, text links, image files, video or audio across any connected device, including laptops, desktop PCs and mobile phones, measuring the performance of campaigns in detail.

Despite the fact that LBS is a hot topic among marketers and publishers, Placecast believes that it is still getting short shrift.

"From what we have seen, working with our location based content publishers and selling campaigns to advertisers, there is a lot of misunderstanding about location's role in advertising," Mr. Swedeen said. "We believe location is the universal key to relevance in advertising.

"However, rather than the late '90s idea of what mobile LBA would be -- SMS coupons triggered by proximity -- what it is turning out to be is the most valuable piece of contextual information," he said.

"This can make all advertising more relevant to the user so that instead of being something interruptive that detracts from the experience, it can improve the user experience with more relevant messages and more accessible calls to action, such as click-to-call with a local phone number, click-to-locate, etc."