Clear Blue Media Partners to Offer Wireless Conversion for Publishers

Ad network Clear Blue Media and wireless tech company OmniAlert this week took the wraps off a free service that the companies say will allow publishers to make their sites and ads available on Web-enabled phones, PDAs, and Internet appliances.

Through the deal, Clear Blue Media will offer its publishers the ability to create WAP versions of their sites, hosted by OmniAlert.

Clear Blue Media will continue to serve ads for the publisher in the form of 100-character text ads and full-screen, 120×40 bitmap images. For WAP phones, the ads in some cases have the ability to directly dial the advertiser.

“This agreement gives our publishers a method of easily converting and delivering content to the wireless world, generating additional revenue for their Web sites through wireless ad sales,” said Clear Blue Media president and chief executive Phil Pennington.

OmniAlert will handle the conversion’s heavy lifting through a Web-based interface for publishers. Additionally, OmniAlert will work with publishers to integrate their wireless sites with databases.

OmniAlert will take part in the advertising revenue sharing, the companies said.

Pennington said the concept, with its full-page advertising model, has proved very popular among beta testers.

“The majority of Web publishes out there, the small and medium publishers, dont have the resources or know-how to convert these sites to wireless spaces, as OmniMedia does,” he said. “By giving them this toolkit, it gives immediate access to wireless inventory.”

Clear Blue Media said it would be making an equity investment in OmniAlert as part of the deal, but declined to provide further details.