A LITTLE-KNOWN private company, Akoo International, is setting up a network of digital screens that can send and receive messages from cellphones. The company aims to transform mobile devices into universal remote controls that can select on-demand content from big-screen TVs in airports, bars and restaurants.
With Akoo’s network, named m-Venue, cellphone users can send a text-message request for a music video, sports clip or fashion show to be delivered to their phone or played on a nearby Akoo television screen, which would act much like a high-tech jukebox.
In return, companies can deliver digital coupons and promotions to the cellphones. For instance, a customer at a John Barleycorn restaurant in Chicago, part of the m-Venue network, might select a text message code displayed on a big screen — say, one that would deliver Gwen Stefani’s new music video.
The customer would then receive a text message to the effect of, “Thanks! Gwen Stefani will play shortly. Show this text to your server and get any appetizer for $1.”
Ads on cellphones and digital signs that can be activated by consumers are part of the rapidly expanding business of mobile marketing.
The Carmel Group, a research firm in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., predicts that revenue in the United States from digital signs will grow to $2.6 billion by the end of 2010 from $1.5 billion in 2007.
While a handful of companies are using digital signs for one-way communication, like sending coupons to cellphones, Akoo (pronounced AH-koo) says its technology is different because it allows consumers to control content on digital advertising screens to see something they choose. “This is the only digital out-of-home billboard network that’s fully interactive with mobile phones,” said Andy Stankiewicz, vice president for marketing at Akoo.
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