Free WiFi tied to StreetEasy listing ads in NYC

StreetEasy wants to stop New Yorkers in their tracks.

Pedestrians breezing by many of the Big Apple’s new WiFi stations are in for a dose of listing ads from the New York City-area listing portal.

The ads are designed to prompt pedestrians to put on the brakes and browse the site’s listings using the high-speed Internet that just so happens to be available right there.

“The focus of our ad campaigns has always been to engage with New Yorkers where they spend most of their time – on the streets and subways,” said StreetEasy General Manager Susan Daimler in a statement.

“Partnering with LinkNYC was a logical step, and we are excited to utilize their location-based units to bring live, neighborhood-specific listings directly to the streets of NYC.”

Funding LinkNYC with ads

StreetEasy — which is operated by Zillow Group — has become one of the first real estate firm to advertise with LinkNYC, a network of kiosks that offer free high-speed WiFi, phone calls and a tablet for web browsing.

The city is swapping LinkNYC kiosks in for old phone booths and funding the operation by selling advertising to firms like StreetEasy.

So far, the city has mostly deployed the kiosks on long stretches of Broadway, 8th Avenue and 3rd Avenue, but ultimately more than 7,500 are supposed to pop up in all five boroughs of the city.

Under StreetEasy’s partnership with LinkNYC, the 55-inch-tall digital ad screens on about 20 percent of all LinkNYC’s kiosks will showcase nearby apartment listings on StreetEasy.

Every kiosk will feature a set of three listings that are located nearby that particular kiosk, with sets rotating on a daily basis.

The goal is to inspire passersby to surf listings on StreetEasy, either by visiting streeteasy.com or downloading the listing portal’s mobile app.

Thanks to the kiosks, consumers who take the bait will be able to browse the site at a high velocity and without burning through cellphone data.

Email Teke Wiggin.