Astral projects brand recognition with interactive ads

A new interactive advertising tool from the out-of-home advertising division of Montreal’s Astral Media Inc. offers clients the opportunity to build additional brand recognition and engage consumers through SMS text messages. "I think the gizmo of the future is the cell phone," says Luc Sabbatini, executive VP and COO, Astral Media Outdoor. "Pretty soon you’ll be able to receive your airline ticket on your cell and just present your cell at the gate, buy your coat a display with your cell." Astral’s new offering, Mobiliti Solutions, is an interactive advertising product that ties into the Montreal-based company’s strength in out-of-home advertising: the company claims a 97% coverage rate (referred to as "reach" in the advertising world) in the Toronto market, and 96% in Montreal. Select billboards in the Astral Media Outdoor network will feature Mobiliti Solutions’ "menu" number, 2-15-15, as well as a short code for that particular advertiser. By inputting both on their cell phones or PDA keyboards, users will receive additional information such as contest entry forms and coupons for a free digital music track download via SMS text messaging. Those sorts of enticements are necessary to convince the curious to invest time – both their own, and cell phone network airtime – to interact with the ad and the product. "The challenge for us and for the advertisers with whom we’re going to work is to have an interesting opportunity for people to dial the number," Sabbatini says. "Otherwise, you’re just going to your time." Astral Media Outdoor has engaged two charter customers for Mobiliti Solutions, Quebec independent record label Audiogram and online music download site Palmares.ca. By dialing 2-15-15 and typing "Ariane," consumers will receive a code for a free music track by Audiogram recording artist Ariane Moffatt. Dial the Astral menu number and type "palmares," and users will get a free download from Palmares.ca each week for the duration of the campaign. "Soon you will be able to buy that song on your cell phone through Palmares.ca," Sabbatini says. "It’s only a natural use of the of the mobile phone." European advertising agencies have been working with carriers there to make cell phone-enabled interactive advertising a reality. For instance, Ford used billboards and shortcodes to promote its Ford Focus in Belgium in 2004. "Those guys have been doing it for a while – people text-message…a lot in France, Belgium," Sabbatini says. Internally, Astral is also leveraging the capabilities of mobile devices to provide more information about its properties and content. For instance, Sabbatini says listeners of Astral’s 10-station Radio Énergie chain can dial a shortcode for their local affiliate, type "T" and get artist and song title for the track currently playing, as well as the two preceding tracks. The media company also produces podcasts of edited highlights from its radio properties – a feature that’s garnered 30,000 downloads a week from Astral’s Montreal stations alone. "People who can’t listen to their favourite show now…will go to the website, get the podcast, download it to their computer or on their mobile phone," he says. With SMS technology more than a decade old in its commercial sense, Sabbatini says Astral is already at work on the next generation of interactivity between mobility customers and advertising networks. "The second step is going to be Bluetooth," he says, noting that adopting that wireless technology would negate the need for consumers to dial. Instead, they’d simply turn on the Bluetooth receiver built into their device and opt in to receive promotional messages in advance. "Just by walking by a board you receive the information." Earlier comments about engaging consumers and making it worthwhile for them to interact with the billboard notwithstanding, Sabbatini says the Mobiliti Solutions will have to be applied judiciously to avoid burning out. "We don’t want to go crazy on this and have 15 things going on simultaneously," he says. "We’d like to be careful."

Astral projects brand recognition with interactive ads

News | 11/30/2006 5:00 am EST

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