The heyday for geolocation may have been in 2012, when card-linked offers were at their peak. But geolocation solutions company Placecast is bringing it back. Last week, the California-based company launched Location Verification to bring geolocation to the next level.
Developed in partnership with Sprint’s Pinsight Media, the new solution aims to help marketers and advertisers validate the location accuracy of geo-targeted mobile ad campaigns. Location Verification leverages carrier data from Pinsight Media to confirm the accuracy of mobile advertisements, giving marketers a cost-effective way to reach their target audience. This accuracy mitigates the estimated 25% of media spend budget that is lost on wasted coverage, which this year will add up to $4 billion of the $16 billion spent on targeted, mobile ads.
Kevin McGinnis, CEO of Pinsight Media, said, “It’s staggering to see how many millions of dollars are wasted every year based on old or inaccurate data. We are proud to support solutions like Location Verification that help raise the performance bar in the mobile advertising industry.”
Location Verification does not build a profile for each user. Instead, in an effort to protect personally identifiable information, the company leverages anonymized and aggregated location data from carriers to determine the accuracy of the data. “Carrier data is a canonical truth data set that enables us to understand and score the accuracy of data in the mobile ad ecosystem to an unprecedented level,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast. “With the power of carrier data to verify accuracy, mobile advertisers can feel confident that they’re optimizing their ad spend toward reaching their appropriate geo-targeted audience.”
Founded in 2005, Placecast demoed at FinovateSpring 2013. The company’s other location-based solutions include Mobile Data Management Platform, Mobile Demand-Side Platform, and Native Mobile Advertising, among others. Last fall, the company was awarded two location data patents. Earlier in 2016, Placecast unveiled a strategic, 3-year partnership with Mobsta, a U.K.-based location-targeting specialist for mobile and tablet.