AT&T Tests Home-Grown Ad-Supported Directory Assistance
In response to the strong growth of third-party directory services that pay for themselves with ad revenue rather than user fees, AT&T Inc. is conducting a trial of its own in-house directory assistance service, complete with audio ads.
The new service, called 1-800-YellowPages, offers customers free lookups for local business listings. In return, they must listen to short ads — probably around 10 seconds long– for companies relevant to their requests before getting the number.
The ads will relate to the business categories users are searching from their phone. A caller asking generally for “florists” may hear an ad for a local flower shop. If the caller asks for a listing for a specific florist, AT&T and ad server partner Apptera will play an ad for that business if they participate in the ad pr0ogram; if not, the carrier may play an ad for a competing florist, then ask if the caller wants to connect to the original choice or to the one featured in the ad.
Ads can be targeted by time of day and the location a user is calling from or calling to. AT&T is test-launching the service in Bakersfield CA, Oklahoma City OK and Columbus OH.
“Increasingly, our customers are calling directory assistance when they don’t have a phone book handy or can’t jump online,” David Huntley, senior vice president of AT&T Diversified Businesses, said in a release. “At the same time, we want to help businesses reach consumers at a key moment — when consumers are in need of a service and are ready to make a purchasing decision.”
AT&T also claims to own the world’s largest Yellow Pages print directory by revenue, and partners with BellSouth on the YellowPages.com Internet directory.
