U S West Dex to sell targeted Internet ads: Directory will match Web sites with local sellers

U S West Dex, the directory arm of U S West, is teaming up with Internet advertising agency DoubleClick to add local targeting capabilities to the banner ads on some heavily trafficked Web sites.

Under the agreement, the U S West Dex's 1000-person sales force will become the exclusive channel for the DoubleClick Local campaign in the regional Bell operating company's 14-state area.

DoubleClick Local advertisers buy banner ads on the company's network of 65 branded Web sites, including often visited stops such as Major League Baseball, PBS, AltaVista and FoodTV. They pay reduced rates for the placements because the ads appear only in their sales regions.

At the heart of the initiative is DoubleClick's proprietary Dart technology, which recognizes a Web visitor's geographic location within milliseconds based on the Internet service provider used, said Jon Heller, general manager of DoubleClick Local. The technology then categorizes the page the visitor is scanning and inserts a banner from an advertiser in that category. It does not pinpoint clients of national ISPs such as America Online.

U S West Dex will begin selling ads on DoubleClick pages in Salt Lake City in September, followed by Phoenix and St. Paul, Minn. The program then will roll out to the remainder of the coverage area in early 1999.

U S West Dex has pre-existing relations with the half-million customers who buy ads in its Yellow Pages each year and the 25,000 who advertise on its Web site.

"We see the relationship with DoubleClick as a way to bring to our advertisers properties and impressions that normally would be out of their reach," said Chad Roffers, director of business development and e-commerce for U S West Dex.