Gawker Media has partnered with mobile ad network Quattro Wireless to run mobile sites for its various properties, and to work as the exclusive global sales agent for ads on those sites.
The new partnership has resulted in mobile sites for 10 Gawker Media sites — five made exclusively for the iPhone, including Gizmodo and Lifehacker.
“We recognize that the need for making a mobile experience that is unique to our reader’s devices has proliferated,” said Chris Batty, VP of sales at Gawker Media. He added that while brands have been talking about the need to be on the mobile device for years, now is the time that consumers are actually looking for content on the phone, and that Gawker decided to partner with Quattro because it was impressed with its portfolio.
Quattro Wireless will soon launch three additional Gawker Media mobile sites, including Gawker, Kotaku and Deadspin. “They have great traffic online and a very tech-savvy audience, and they were getting more demand for this,” said Lars Albright, VP of business development at Quattro Wireless.
“We have requests that are coming in for ads space just for mobile,” Batty remarked. “For the most part, people are looking to buy mobile in a siloed fashion.”
Ketel One recently asked Gawker about doing a mobile exclusive campaign on its site, which will launch soon.
Gawker has also recently announced layoffs, which Batty says is mutually exclusive from the mobile expansion. Gawker attributed the layoffs to an expected decrease in advertising spend as the economy sinks. However, the site also reported that advertising is up 30% so far this year.
