|
In the News
MyScreen bringing mobile ad platform to Latin America, Brazil; rollout
plans for Canada less certain
By Stefan Dubowski
Created 11/30/2009 - 11:33am
Toronto-based MyScreen Mobile Inc. inked a major deal last week to bring
its interactive mobile advertising service to over 194 million cell phone
users in Latin America and the Caribbean. Then there’s the 42 million
Brazilians it will reach following a separate deal announced last month.
Yet, it’s future in Canada is less certain as a result of its partnership
with Egyptian-based Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, which the CRTC recently
ruled controls too much of Globalive Wireless Management Corp.
MyScreen has developed a patent-pending technology platform that delivers
targeted, full-screen advertisements to mobile handsets at the end of
calls. Subscribers sign up through MyScreen’s web site, and give
the company some basic demographic and lifestyle information – age,
education and hobbies. Then, at the end of each mobile call, the user’s
phone displays a MyScreen-served advertisement for a product or service
that’s in line with the user’s information. Each ad-viewing
session translates into reward points that users can redeem with their
mobile operators for airtime, games, and other products, such as iTunes
songs, McDonalds combo meals, and Ticketmaster concerts.
The company has already signed up heavyweights such as home and food-products
maker Unilever, and Groupo Bimbo, one of the world’s largest bakeries.
According to the CEO of this Toronto-based business, it’s just the
beginning.
“I can’t say more than that, but we have more than that,”
says Maurizio Angelone, MyScreen’s chief executive.
It’s a business plan in which everyone wins, Angelone says: consumers
get the rewards, advertisers get a vehicle to reach customers directly,
and carriers get a cut of the cost of the advertising campaign. “The
whole value proposition is extremely strong,” he says.
MyScreen announced a significant expansion last week with America Movil,
a wireless service provider in Latin America and the Caribbean. The two
companies have already integrated the MyScreen system into Movil’s
network, and plan to begin offering targeted ads in December. Unilever
and Groupo Bimbo are two of the brands that will be advertised via the
America Movil deal, Angelone says.
In October, MyScreen announced a deal to introduce its mobile ad service
to users of Claro Brazil’s wireless service. Claro’s a Movil
subsidiary. In August, MyScreen said it had completed a trial of its service
on Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.’s mobile network in Turkey.
In January, MyScreen said <http://www.techmediareports.ca/reports/content/9159-myscreen_gets_development_deal>
[1] it would enter a multi-year partnership with Sentaca, a wireless network
consulting company headquartered in Ireland, to help integrate the MyScreen
service into carriers’ networks.
Aligning with Globalive could alter rollout plans for Canada
But here in Canada, MyScreen has aligned itself with a pair of more challenging
bedfellows. MyScreen signed <http://www.techmediareports.ca/reports/content/8880-globalive_chief_talks_more_about_wireless_plans>
[2] Canadian start-up carrier Globalive Wireless (a.k.a. Wind Mobile)
in the fall of 2008. Now, Globalive is mired in the regulatory mud, with
the CRTC saying <http://www.techmediareports.ca/reports/content/10011-globalive_debacle_an_%E2%80%9Cembarrassment%E2%80%9D_for_canada_single_review_for_foreign_ownership_te>
[3]that the company is too heavily controlled by Egypt-based wireless
network operator Orascom.
Orascom also happens to be a MyScreen backer. In May 2008, the carrier
invested $10 million in MyScreen, in a deal to bring the mobile ad service
to Orascom’s 100 million subscribers in the Middle East, Africa,
South Asia, Italy and Greece. Today, MyScreen management, company insiders
and Orascom together control 75% of MyScreen. The company is also publicly
traded on the Pink Sheets (symbol: MYSL). Angelone says the business will
probably move to a stock exchange like the NASDAQ or the New York Stock
Exchange as the revenue begins to flow.
You might think MyScreen’s CEO would be concerned about the CRTC
situation, which, in the worst case, could result Globalive’s failure
to launch, which would curtail MyScreen’s revenue projections. But
if Angelone is worried, he certainly isn’t showing it.
“I don’t see a major negative effect” if Globalive doesn’t
go ahead, he says, adding that his company could sign up another Canadian
carrier and move forward with plans to operate in this country.
The brainchild of Canadian inventor Gino Porco (MyScreen’s founder,
and the company’s chief technology adviser), the system has a number
of unique attributes, MyScreen boasts: the ads are targeted, making them
highly relevant to users; the incentives keep subscribers interested;
the ads are full-screen and visually engaging, optimizing the brand; the
ads are delivered at the end of the calls, increasing the chances that
users will pay attention to them (people tend to be looking at the screen
when they end calls, Angelone notes); and it’s more effective than
other digital advertising systems. SMS text ads aren’t as noticeable,
and whereas internet ad click-through rates are below 1%, MyScreen ads
generated click-throughs north of 20% in a commercial trial.
Angelone says MyScreen is moving through the patent process, locking down
ownership of a system that not only delivers full-screen advertisements
to handsets at the end of calls, but also integrates with marketing management
systems and mobile e-commerce platforms to maximize user engagement.
These unusual features convinced Orascom to invest in MyScreen, says Michael
O’Connor. Formerly Orascom’s investment and business development
officer – and one of the key people in the MyScreen-Orascom deal
– he’s now vice-chairman of Globalive.
“It’s a very unique service approach,” he says of MyScreen.
“It’s non-intrusive and dynamic with the customer.”
Orascom doesn’t normally invest in technology companies. The firm
is better known for backing wireless network providers and expanding its
global footprint that way. Since the MyScreen investment breaks the mold,
will Orascom continue to invest in technology companies now? Only in certain
situations. “If it can provide us with a differential service, we
will consider investing,” O’Connor says of the Orascom investment
philosophy. He notes that Orascom has also put money into English-language
learning products provider Lingo Media Corp., based in Toronto.
In its investment literature, MyScreen points to research indicating that
mobile advertising could be a big business in the coming years. Juniper
Research says mobile advertising revenues in South America – America
Movil’s market – from 2009 to 2013 are expected to reach US$1.3
billion.
Angelone says he foresees a major shift on the horizon. In the past, new
media markets such as the web and mobile were afterthoughts for advertisers.
“For the first time... I believe mobile will become a strategic
investment for advertisers,” he says.
Copyright ©2009 Tech Media Reports Inc.
Reproduction or retransmission of any kind without permission is prohibited.
|
