Voice 2.0 company Talkster and advertising services firm VoodooVox have partnered to ad-enable Talkster calls.

As part of the deal, Talkster's Free World Dialing uses VoodooVox's In-Call Network to deliver long distance, international and group conference calls from mobile phones for the cost of a local call.

"We allow our users to make long-distance calls from any landline for free and so we needed a way to monetize from our user-base," said Jim Ferguson president of Talkster, Toronto. "VoodooVox has strong links with publishers as it marries publishers off with expensive advertisers.

"With this comes a strategic channel partnership enabling us to monetize our user base while we continue to grow and scale our users," he said.

The VoodooVox In-Call Network delivers interactive advertisements into the call stream of Talkster's long distance, international and group calls.

VoodooVox benefits from the partnership because Talkster can identify a user's specific geographical location, thus allowing more targeted advertisements.

These calls provide a unique means for advertisers to deliver audio messages. Campaigns can be monitored and tracked at all times and can be tailored on-demand.

"VoodooVox was impressed with Talkster's ability to id users in very specific geographical categories such as state and ZIP code," Mr. Ferguson said. "For example, Bank of America is headquartered in California and was looking to conduct a campaign targeting users in the state. Talkster was able to identify the right prospects for Bank of America."

Research-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer is another large advertiser on VoodooVox's In-Call Network.

"What we did for Bank of America is really targeting by geography," Mr. Ferguson said. "From our perspective it's a way to immediately start monetizing our user-base."

Consumers can use Talkster's Free World Dialing service by going to http://free.talkster.com from any mobile phone browser, from www.Talkster.com on the Web, or from http://i.talkster.com from an Apple iPhone.

"We found through our studies, focus groups and trade shows that users are more receptive to relevant ads," Mr. Ferguson said. "We see 12 to 14 percent response rates. Relevant ads drive commerce through mobile marketing and advertising."