JiWire Expands Location-Based Media Channel by Partnering With Borders

Exclusive Partnership Allows Top Brand Advertisers to Reach On-The-Go Audiences at Over 500 Borders Locations in the U.S.


SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - July 28, 2010) - JiWire, the leading location-based mobile media company reaching the On-The-Go Audience, and Borders, a leading specialty retailer of books and other educational and entertainment items today announced an exclusive partnership to enable advertising across Borders' Wi-Fi network. Every time a user connects to Wi-Fi in any one of over 500 Borders, they will see location-targeted messages and offers from leading national brands leveraging JiWire's highly contextual location-based advertising platform.

The partnership gives premium brands, such as UPS, Verizon and Cisco's WebEx the opportunity to reach and engage the millions of customers who visit Borders stores across the U.S. each year. With the rapid increase of Wi-Fi enabled devices and growing consumer demand for the speed and convenience of public Wi-Fi, premium café venues like Borders are becoming the go-to place for local consumers to get connected for both personal and business use. In fact, the use of Wi-Fi in cafés increased over 50 percent in Q1 2010 from Q4 2009, based on JiWire's recent Mobile Audience Insights report.

The Insights report in June of last year focused heavily on Wi-Fi in cafés, including venues such as Borders. The study shows that 83 percent connect in their own neighborhoods for both business and pleasure allowing advertisers a unique opportunity to connect with local, tech savvy, affluent consumers and small business owners. Additionally, nearly 70 percent of café users connect for over one hour on all mobile devices including laptops, Smartphones, and iPads, with 85 percent connecting at least once a week, creating a highly captive and consistent audience.

"We are very excited to partner with such a dominant retailing leader in Borders. It has created an incredibly welcoming, comfortable place for Wi-Fi users to work and browse the Internet away from the home and office," said David Courtney, CEO of JiWire. "As we see a notable shift in more café locations offering free Wi-Fi, the café owners are looking to find new ways to monetize their networks. These premium café locations have developed a unique audience that is incredibly valuable and we are making it possible for advertisers to have location-specific engagement with this hard to reach On-The-Go Audience."

About Borders Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is a leading specialty retailer of books as well as other educational and entertainment items. The company employs approximately 19,500 throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders® and Waldenbooks® stores. Online shopping is offered through borders.com. Find author interviews and vibrant discussions of the products we and our customers are passionate about online at facebook.com/borders, twitter.com/borders and youtube.com/bordersmedia. For more information about the company, visit borders.com/media.

About JiWire

JiWire is the leader in connecting advertisers to today's On-The-Go Mobile Audience, using the world's largest location-based interactive media channel. JiWire's platform enables advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person's physical location while taking the venue type and brand into account. JiWire also allows wireless broadband network hosts and device manufacturers to leverage advertising as a currency for wireless Internet access. With a goal of engaging users however they connect to the Internet while On-The-Go, JiWire provides a cross-channel solution that extends location-based targeting to multiple devices, from laptops to smartphones across content channels from Wi-Fi to the Internet to mobile. For more information, please visit www.JiWire.com or call (415) 877-4711.