Ring tones: more bleeping ads
The latest trend in cellphone customization is ‘ring back tones,’ or personalized ring tones that callers will hear while waiting for you to answer your phone.
London-based Netsize Group estimates that customized ring back tones will be a $1.5 billion industry by the end of 2005. More than a third of cellphone users in Korea already subscribe to the service, which offers marketers an open-ended opportunity to chime in with their messaging.
Record companies also expect to earn royalties from the use of digitized popular songs.
Telephone e-mail: What’s in a name when you have a number?
An entrepreneur in Los Angeles has found a way to help marketers bridge the gap between e-mail and text messaging.
Teleflip, launched in November, is a free service that allows users to e-mail text messages to any text-equipped cellphone by sending an e-mail to the phone number @teleflip.com.
The concept is essentially a workaround that lets users e-mail text messages without having to remember the variety of individual e-mail addresses currently used by cellphone carriers.
Advertisers will soon be able to get in on the action by purchasing the last few characters of the text message as a ‘sponsor’s number.’ Users can dial the number to download coupons. The model has already been successful in Europe.
Sugar packets: Canada Reads and drinks coffee
CBC Radio One and CBC Newsworld chose the unusual medium of sugar packets to promote Canada Reads. Campaign creative appeared on individual sugar packets at Timothy’s cafes in cities across the country throughout February.
The promotion was executed by Toronto’s Sugar Media & Communications, which specializes in placing ads on sugar, based on the assumption that this is the best way to reach ‘a highly desirable urban demographic of affluent professionals.’ The company has an exclusive arrangement with Timothy’s coffee chain. – by Sara Minogue
