movifone

Apptera’s voice and visual mobile advertising solution will manage and monetize the calls on behalf of AOL Movifone.

What is the deal?
Basically, Apptera gets a reach into the movie showtime and ticket-ordering industry, with the MobileAd Xchange now reaching an estimated 100 million callers a year with ads based on their geography and buying preferences.

Example?
If someone calls for tickets to a G-rated movie they could be served an ad from a nearby restaurant offering free desert for the kids after the show. Additionally, this service could also be used to distribute promotion codes for relevant products (i.e. products used in the movie) to the mobile phones of the vast movie-going audience.
From the press release

“As one of the premiere online and offline destinations for film fans, Moviefone continues to experience tremendous growth among fans and advertisers while simultaneously developing and deepening our partnerships with movie studios to develop new and innovative programs to create awareness for upcoming releases ,” said AOL Senior Vice President Mike Rich. “This new partnership with Apptera helps us further drive advertising revenue while improving our consumer experience on the phone.”

Apptera’s mobile advertising technology offers contextual multimedia promotions to callers when they interact with speech-enabled movie show time applications. For example, callers could choose to get a phone call or SMS reminder when another movie is about to premiere or a promotion code for a movie sponsor’s product. The Apptera technology and advertising network could also be used to enhance a user’s night out.

What we think?
First AT&T and then new patents and now AOL – Apptera is going for it. I have a mixed view of voice advertising –but I have always like the idea of movie advertising as watching a movie is like choice. In a social situation I can image users wanting to hear for alternatives or special offers. I know that recently in Harrow Cinema in England I was going to see Kung Fu Panda with the kids and the woman said – why don’t you go in now as the parents are free for the 10am? I was sold. This would work great with in the cinema, mobile voice ad space.

But on a higher lever – this is only part one. I am waiting for the day that music that is played during call waiting is replaced with adverts, comedy clips and voice commercials. This could be targeted and personal as you know the mobile phone number and hence the user.

Related News:

1. Mobile Advertising the Audio Apptera way for Iron Man or Incredible Hunk
2. Apptera Incredible Hulk Mobile Ad
3. Apptera raises USD 9 million for in-call mobile advertising
4. Voice advertising experts Apptera secure over 10 million dollars… and a former Yahoo! executive
5. Apptera receives two new patents for caller behavior and speech applications