Espoo, Finland-based Nokia recently announced plans to buy Boston-based mobile marketing solutions company Enpocket in an effort to ‘create a global mobile advertising leader’ by standardizing ad-supported mobile content.


Enpocket currently counts big publishers like Condé Nast and Newscorp and advertisers like Pepsi, Panasonic and Toyota as clients. It mates mobile content from publishers with relevant advertisers in the States. Once the deal closes – and it is expected to do so before the end of the year – Nokia plans to offer this model in markets around the world.


Nokia already has relationships with 600 mobile carriers globally. ‘Operators have indicated that they need help with the [mobile] ad business,’ says Enpocket CEO Mike Baker, adding that Enpocket is already in talks with several Canadian operators. ‘They want to find a trusted partner to help them build the business and share some of the risk.’


Baker adds that many of his clients have expressed interest in taking their mobile promotions around the world. One of Enpocket’s biggest clients is Purchase, NY-based PepsiCo, for which it built a Superbowl-specific mobile promotion last year. The effort aimed to drive traffic to Pepsi’s mobile website, raise awareness about new can designs and increase video and mobile wallpaper downloads of Pepsi-related content. The ploy generated nine million impressions and 175,000 wallpaper downloads.


‘Nokia is very focused on the question, ‘What, beyond phone calls, will people be using cell phones to do?’ We thought that was the right question to ask,’ says Baker. ‘Consumers want access to editorial content, but they don’t necessarily want to pay for it.’


www.enpocket.com


www.nokia.ca