By Shaheen Samavati
The Plain Dealer - May 17, 2007

Revol Wireless customers in Northeast Ohio are helping test a new type of direct marketing.

The regional wireless provider, based in Independence, recently partnered with Mobile Posse Inc. to bring targeted advertising to some customers' cell phone screens.

Advertisers are eager for the chance to send messages directly to the "idle screens" of cell phone users nationwide. But most U.S. wireless carriers have so far been reluctant to embrace the idea for fear of alienating consumers.

Randy Lindsay, marketing manager for Revol, admits that he was leery of the idea at first, too.

"It wasn't until we saw Mobile Posse's application that we really understood the value that it would bring to our customers," he said. In late March, Revol subscribers were the first to be able to download Mobile Posse's software application. Those who opt into the service get a one-time $10 discount, Lindsay said.

The service, branded Revol Perks, is called "idle screen" advertising because messages pop up on a cell phone screen when the phone isn't in use. The message stays on the screen until the customer clicks to read more about the offer or to dismiss it.

So far, Mobile Posse has signed on 17 advertisers, including Pizza Hut, HHGregg, Panera Bread, Fitworks, and WOIO Channel 19 and WUAB Channel 43.

So why would anybody opt to receive ads?

Stanton Cort, a marketing professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management, said that while unwanted advertising is seen as obtrusive, "People very seldom seem hostile to ads for things that they want."

Those who sign up for Revol Perks provide age, gender and ZIP code, said John Jackson, chief executive of Mobile Posse, a mobile advertising technology company that was founded in late 2005. That information is used to tailor advertising to the individual.

"If you ask consumers if they like advertising, they're going to say no," Jackson said. "But they're actually OK with advertising if it's done the right way."

The key is listening to what consumers want, and getting permission to market to them, he said.

Jackson said 75 percent of those offered Revol Perks have signed up for it. And, though there's no obligation to stay subscribed, no one has opted out yet. Revol's Lindsay wouldn't disclose how many customers had been offered the service.

Tenisha Robinson, 29, of Cleveland said she wouldn't mind having ads sent her cell phone as long as they were things she could use.

"Sounds like a pretty good idea if it's going to save me money," she said after buying a new phone Wednesday at the Revol store on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland. "I'm all about saving money."

Tony Baker, 35, said he signed up a couple months ago to get the $10 discount, but hasn't used the service yet. "I haven't even looked on there," he said. "I just hit ignore."

Wireless carriers and customers in Asia and Europe have increasingly embraced cell phone advertising, said Golan Shaked, the vice president for marketing and media services of London-based Celltick Technologies. His company markets a product called LiveScreen Media that is offered through 27 wireless providers internationally.

Celltick, which made its first partnership with an Indian wireless provider in 2000, has been a pioneer in bringing news and customized information, including advertising, to the idle screens of cell phone users.

But Shaked said the company has been proceeding cautiously to avoid offending its 45 million customers.

"Consumers see this [medium] as much more intimate than a mailbox or even an e-mail box," he said. "They take [mobile phones] everywhere, even to the toilet."

Celltick keeps track of the type of content users click on and draws on that to customize future content.

Though idle screen advertising has yet to sweep the United States, several carriers are exploring ways to bring in ad revenue via the mobile Internet.

There's no way for carriers to cash in on others' mobile Web sites. But companies like Sprint and Verizon make users go through their own gateways, or portals, to reach the Internet. The carriers control the ads on those pages, said Jeff Janer, chief marketing officer for Boston-based Third Screen Media Inc.

His company embeds advertising in mobile Web sites, videos and applications such as games.

Mobile Posse "is putting an ad in a place where there's never been an ad before," Janer said. "Most carriers are not starting their ad efforts there just because it's so intrusive."

David DeVries, a spokesman for Sprint, said advertising embedded into video clips and Web content is "as far as we're willing to go at this point."

He speculated that Revol's younger target audience might be more tolerant to blatant selling.

"Our overriding philosophy here is that we don't want to do anything to upset our existing customer base," he said.

Still, Janer of Third Screen Media said idle screen advertising is something big carriers are likely to consider more seriously in the future as they look for opportunities to increase their revenue streams. And Shaked of Celltick Technologies said he has seen growing interest from Western customers and expects his company to enter the U.S. market within two years.

For its part, Mobile Posse has had talks with every major U.S. wireless provider, Jackson said. He understands that mobile advertising, if done the wrong way, could end up like e-mail marketing -- annoying consumers with rampant, unregulated and largely unwanted solicitations.

"I think the carriers have a golden opportunity right now to bring advertising to their consumers in ways that they will accept, " he said.