Localeze in Deal With ADP

I was at the Association of Directory Publishers meeting in Virginia last week. There was the usual bread-and-butter how-to content (distribution efficiency, for example) plus a little of the usual red meat incumbent bashing for the independent publisher faithful, though I might add a bit less than usual.

On Friday afternoon, ADP announced an arrangement with Localeze (formerly Amacai) to offer ADP members the option of reselling its search engine optimization in a box tool for SMEs. Essentially, the idea is to sell the SEO tool to YP advertisers for roughly $100, about $75 of which the publisher keeps (in rough terms). In exchange, Localeze will increase the advertisers’ odds of appearing higher in local search results on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and so on.

The deal was positioned as complementary with other ADP partner members, many of which are offering various flavors of IYP platforms. That point is certainly true; Localeze is not offering a platform. One concern I did hear expressed was whether the Localeze solution might make sense for a small publisher not currently offering IYP or with an unsuccessful existing product, perhaps to the exclusion of a platform play.

What will be interesting to see is whether the marketing profile and access to the ADP membership this deal provides will make a difference to Localeze’s efforts to penetrate the independent market. If so, we may see more of these marketing partnerships with associations.