Wednesday, February 16, 2005

TV And The Cell Phone Merge

Think of incorporating this feature into TV ads. Stop people from Tivo'ing your 30 second ad and provide interaction. I can think of endless campaigns.

From Business Wire New York City's "What's the 411?" chooses SmartSMS to add mobile text.

HOLLYWOOD--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2005--American IDC Corporation's (OTC:ACNI:PK) Gordon Lee, CEO, announced today that SmartSMS USA, an American IDC subsidiary, has secured an agreement to provide text messaging services to "What's the 411?" one of New York City's most popular urban entertainment TV programs. This will enable "411" to interact directly with its TV audience while simultaneously generating income.

This is an advertisers dream. Your marketing database gets created for you. And now, the advertiser can reach this person anytime, anywhere.

"What's The 411?" Offers the latest in urban news and entertainment programming featuring some of the "hottest" personalities from America and the world over!

'What's The 411?" is a half-hour weekly entertainment television news magazine program with urban sensibilities. It takes a fascinating look at the bright and distinctive developments and accomplishments of celebrities and news makers impacting the music, film, fashion, sports and cultural arenas!

Ruth Morrison, Producer of 'What's The 411?" say's "Our target audiences of urban young adults are among the highest users of mobile text messaging and we see the technology as a natural way to stay engaged with our audience. SmartSMS will help us achieve our goal by developing a suite of mobile services designed to create and maintain one to one connections with our viewers."

'What's The 411?' intends to enhance its programming by using SmartSMS to provide interactive components that allow viewers to text message votes, contest entries or answer questions using their mobile phones.

Clarence McDowell, President of SmartSMS USA states "Each time a viewer responds to a call to action they will receive a sponsor coupon, special or other incentive as a reply back message on their mobile phone. We see this as a win-win for everyone (ITS REALLY CALLED GETTING PERMISSION). Show producers gain a new revenue generating marketing tool, advertisers gain ability to deliver direct to their targets and viewers receive incentives for interacting with one of their favorite programs what could be better."

Great idea. Take this concept one step further and use in TV ads, magazine, billboards, radio. Mobile marketing will start this way, but advertisers have to provide incentive to opt-in and make sure the marketing campaign is relevant to the user.

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