E-marketer CoolSavings.com Inc.
took to the wireless world to market itself on Tuesday, launching an
advertising campaign on the Metrocall (MCLL) wireless service using Motorola Corp.‘s (MOT) i Kno! technology.
The ads will appear on Metrocall’s Preview Channel service, and eventually
on the OnTheGoInfoCast service, which offer customizable weather, traffic,
news, sports scores, financial information, and movie reviews.
The companies say that advertising on the information services will consist
only of messages that consumers will find of value — those that help save
them money. The style and content of advertising messages on wireless
devices is a big issue facing pioneers in the field, as no one is quite
sure what users will accept.
The i Kno! system is designed to administer, track, and insert advertising
into the wireless information services.
“Our early market research reveals that consumers are willing to accept
value-added advertising on their pagers if it can lower their service
cost,” said John Barrett, director of Motorola’s i Kno! Hub Operations.
“Metrocall’s Preview information services currently delivers four ‘channels
of information’ to its existing word paging customers, providing an instant
audience for advertisers. We’ve seen other qualitative feedback that
suggest consumer response can be phenomenal compared to traditional media.”