MyScreen bringing mobile ad platform to Latin America, Brazil; rollout plans for Canada less certain

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 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 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 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.

MyScreen bringing mobile ad platform to Latin America, Brazil; rollout plans for Canada less certain

Broadcast | November 30, 2009

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