14 DAY TRIAL // Hyatt Hotels & Resorts checked into Microsoft Mobile Advertising in order to leverage an agreement inked by Microsoft and Verizon Wireless in January 2009 to drive traffic to its mobile website. The terms of the advertising deal signed by Global Hyatt and Microsoft Mobile Advertising were not made public, but the Redmond-based company informed that in addition to increasing the audience of Hyatt’s mobile website, the campaign would also focus on fueling the adoption of the Hyatt Gold Passport frequent guest rewards program.
Charles Johnson, general manager, Microsoft’s Mobile Advertising, indicated that the new agreement with Global Hyatt was an illustration of the efforts poured into mobile advertising for the software giant.
“Mobile is a critical component of the overall Microsoft Advertising strategy. We’ve made significant investments to develop an agnostic platform that works with any phone, so that advertisers and publishers can reach and engage in meaningful ways with their target audiences,” Johnson explained. “By working with Verizon Wireless, we’re executing on our vision to efficiently provide consumers with enhanced, entertaining and engaging mobile experiences that are useful to them on the go.”
Richard Williams, executive director for advertising and digital media at Verizon, applauded Microsoft as an opportunity for companies to reach mobile phone owners with their ads. The software giant and Verizon became partners at the start of this year, when Microsoft Mobile Advertising won the rights to administer both mobile search and display advertising on Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Web service.
“Microsoft Mobile Advertising provides us with a compelling and scalable solution that can drive awareness, and encourages people to interact with our mobile Web site as another channel to register for our rewards program and reserve a room,” added Amy Curtis-McIntyre, senior vice president of Brand Communications for Global Hyatt Corp. “The powerful combination of Microsoft’s popular destination sites like MSN and Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Web service not only offers exceptional reach to our target audience, but provides us with an efficient solution to work with both a large publisher and service provider through one simple platform.”