Mobile Agent Puts Home Info in the Hands of Buyers & Agents

July 23, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

CellSigns awarded 2008 NAA Innovative Operations award

CellSigns wins award for on-demand Mobile Alert System
with the Palm Beach Post newspaper

By LaShell Stratton

At The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla., taking a good idea and making it even better is a strategy for success. Since 2004, the Post has built on previous award-winning online products to create even more innovative digital media systems.

This year was no exception. The Post adapted a classified advertising technology, Classifieds on the Go, that it developed with mobile vendor CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com) and created an on-demand mobile alert system to notify users about hurricane and tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season from June through November.

“One of the responsibilities of newspapers is to help protect people and their property,” says Dan Shorter, former general manager of PalmBeachPost.com.

In January, Shorter was named president of digital media at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

Classifieds on the Go, which won a 2007 Innovative Operations Award, allows readers to access classified ads on demand by typing a text message code in their cell phones (“Good Ideas,” April 2007, p. 52).

Last year wasn’t the first time the Post was recognized for its mobile technology. The newspaper earned recognition as a NAA Best Practices Award winner in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Post brainstormed other practical uses for the Classifieds on the Go technology, says Gina C. Wilcox, digital operations director. The Post also wanted to build a system that advertisers could sponsor, which led Shorter and his award-winning team to the mobile alerts.

The Post development team realized that many residents rely on their cell phones to communicate and find information during storms so, in May 2007, it began working on the alert system.

Technical Manager Dale Swain wrote a PHP automated script for the newspaper’s server that monitors the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.noaa.gov) every five minutes for updates about hurricanes near South Florida. The script pulls key information, such as the hurricane’s wind speed, category, direction and speed of movement, and translates it into XML before sending it to CellSigns.

The files are then dropped into CellSigns’ database, and the hurricane data are placed into fields. When mobile device users dial the word STORM to the Post’s mobile short code, they receive a text message about the hurricane’s progression. Mobile users also can view the newspaper’s STORM WAP site, which contains breaking news, live radar images and more. Users can access the alert system and the WAP site even if they don’t subscribe to the newspaper.

As an added precaution against failure during hurricanes, CellSigns placed the alert system on corporate servers outside Florida.

The final product took about three months to develop, Wilcox says, and a few weeks later, the newspaper sold a sizable sponsorship package to Publix Super Markets Inc. As part of the package, Publix could include its brand as well as a link to its Web site with alert text messages, says Wilcox. The package also includes promotions in other STORM services such as subscriber-based mobile alerts, the newspaper’s weekly HTML newsletter containing preparedness tips and advisory e-mails that are automatically generated every time the National Hurricane Center issues an update on active tropical activity.

The on-demand alert system can be easily adapted by other newspapers, whether they are in the Midwest and want to alert residents about tornadoes, or are on the West Coast and want to send updates about earthquakes, says Bill Bolger, vice president of production at The Indianapolis Star and a member of NAA’s Printing Technology Committee, which helped to judge the I.O. Awards.

“It probably didn’t hurt that we had tornadoes around here about two weeks before I reviewed the entries,” Bolger says. “I looked at this and thought, ‘We could use something like that here.’ ”

April 20, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

CellSigns’ client wins a 2008 NAA Digital Edge Award

The Palm Beach Post wins for Best Mobile Shopping Directory

NAA Digital Edge Awards – February 2008

The newspaper industry can’t let Google and Yahoo! and a slew of other international companies come into our local markets and take away mobile advertising revenue. Many of these dot-coms already are offering business directories via mobile, which list area hotels, restaurants and the such. We can’t give up this on-the-go audience. We need to own this local market as we do print and online.

To fight back, the staff of PalmBeachPost.com decided to offer every element of every display ad plus our classifieds via a mobile site and text messaging. Revenue for the first year is close to $750,000 with the largest sale being $40,000 to a grocery store.

Gina Wilcox, the digital development director, along with technical manager Dale Swain, mobile coordinator Shaun Flagg and online GM Dan Shorter created our site at shop.pbpost.com. “You can search about 25,000 goods and services that have appeared in Post ads in the past week. You can search for homes, pizza, cars, jobs or anything else that appeared in the paper. These items are also available on our Shopping channel. We even offer photos,” says Wilcox.

Some are images taken from display ads and then associated with the part of the print ad that was searched for. An example would be searching for a plasma TV and getting all the details in the display ad plus the color photo that ran with it.

We are already seeing people not just searching for plasma TVs but putting in specific UPC codes. It appears they are standing in one electronics store with their cell phone checking out inventories on our mobile site for competitors across town.

We also allow mobile device users without Web services to search via text messaging. They text shop to 72727 and then select a category. It takes a few more steps but they see the same items as on our mobile site.

We think mobile has a tremendous upside, since we know that more people in our market have cell phones and PDAs than have Internet connections.

Our vendor partner is CellSigns.

February 24, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

Four questions with David W. Geipel, Cellsigns Co-Founder

David Geipel, vice president of business development at CellSigns, says that the mobile experience is underpinned by awide array of services. And newspapers better have strategies for each one.

● What are some of the issues facing newspapers when it comes to implementing mobile phone technology?

Mobile isn’t new for many newspapers that have deployed WAP (wireless access protocol) sites with news, weather and sports content. They have been out for several years but most of those investments have not paid off. That’s because “mobile” encompasses a wider range of services to create an experience.

It’s not a single technology. The cornerstone of today’s successful mobile strategy is SMS (text messaging) and WAP. When you consider that a mobile phone can be a Web browser, an e-mail client, a telephone and an instant messenger, you really need to look for a strategy for each of these modes of communication. It also needs to reach consumers across various cell phone carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel.

Video will be the next big thing in the mobile space. Newer technologies like location-based services are still generating a lot of buzz right now.

● How has the mobile technology industry changed over the past few years?

Over the last five years, the fastest growing form of wireless communication in the U.S. has been SMS/text messaging.

In just five years, text messaging has grown from over 18 million text messages a month to over 18.5 billion text messages sent each month in the U.S. It’s been growing 250 percent year over year. In other countries, there are more text messages sent than calls placed.

The mobile Internet will also revolutionize communication and entertainment in the near future as bandwidth increases on mobile networks. New services such as mobile video, photo sharing and music downloading will be all the rage over the next few years as the cell phone morphs into the next-generation communication device. Can anyone say iPhone?

● Do you think mobile phone technology will help newspapers attract the young readership demographic?

Absolutely. According to Forrester Research, 78 percent of cell phone subscribers aged 18 to 26 use data services. Whether it’s teens, tweens or Generation X, Y or Z, they can all be lumped in as the mobile generation, or the consumer on the go.

The only way to reach this demographic is to talk their talk and create services that are useful and are of interest. They may not be picking up the paper, but their phone is with them and they know how to use it.

SMS is to Gen-Y as e-mail was to Gen-X.

● What Web 2.0 technology trends should newspapers pay attention to?

The newsroom has changed. Breaking news is now being reported as it happens through text message posts, mobile e-mail, camera phone photos and mobile video taken from cell phones. Some reporters are being equipped to report from the street and are now being called mojos, or mobile journalists.

Publisher Web sites will soon morph into places where collective intelligence resides. Blogs from actual editors and reporters will become the norm and garner greater readership across the Internet.

The move toward hyper-local puts the spotlight back on the street-by-street news. It also puts the spotlight on social networking applications, microsites and mash-ups — blending technologies.

Mobile technologies will allow advertisers to publish mobile special offers and specials to an opt-in list managed by the publisher. The customer will get the offer immediately on their phone, which reiterates the value of the subscriber relationship.

In the end, mobile is the universal connector between the customer and others with similar interests across all of the newspaper franchises, including news, weather, sports, promotions, and classifieds. — OT

October 7, 2007 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

Mobile Newspapers hits the Streets

CellSigns Inc, a division of QWASI, announces new Multi-Medium Mobile Publishing Solution for Newspapers

PHILADELPHIA, April 26, 2007 – Newspapers are the number one local media brand in spite of eroding circulation over the last decade. To remain the leading local destination, newspapers are investing in mobile technology to expand their reach and footprint. CellSigns, Inc. announced the industry’s first mobile platform, Cellifieds multi-medium mobile solution for Newspapers at NEXPO, the Newspaper Association of America annual trade show in Orlando.

Cellifieds bridges the offline, online and mobile channels. With a cell phone, users can shop the local classifieds for a car, browse pictures and information on homes for sale, or even sign up for alerts and breaking news. The customer can also click on the newspaper website and send a news story, coupon or ad to their cell phone with send-to-phone. “Timing is critical for newspapers when delivering mobile content to consumers,” said David Geipel, President CellSigns, Inc. “Our platform mobilizes content and puts it in the hands of consumers – while they are on the go, when and how they want it.”

CellSigns has been powering mobile solutions in other industries including real estate for over three years, but isn’t new to newspapers. “It’s been exciting working with newspapers for the last two years building their mobile strategy. Our company has quickly responded with a multi-modal approach that delivers the consumer experience across various mobile phones and technologies including SMS (text messaging) and WAP (mobile internet),” says Mark Ford, CEO CellSigns, Inc. The newspaper industry is in the midst of change as Google and Yahoo attempt to own the local mobile market place. Newspapers are reacting by developing a mobile strategy to build their mobile brand. “The papers are quickly learning they need to secure their branded short code for their market and start building an audience,” adds Ford.

The newspaper industry is in the midst of rebranding themselves as the complete local media source. In the fall of 2006 the Palm Beach Post launched Cellifieds mobile classifieds and made their ads and classifieds available via a cell phone using their short code (72727). They recently announced a mobile search that allows customers to search the paper via SMS/text messaging and WAP. With the Cellifieds mobile newspaper platform, the Post won the coveted NAA PRESSTIME magazine 2007 Innovative Operations Award for Mobile Ads on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at the NAA NEXPO conference. “Newspapers today see mobile as the next channel, but it needs to be stressed that timing is critical for them to get their content into the hands of their consumer before someone else does,” add Geipel.

ABOUT CELLSIGNS

CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com) is a leading mobile applications company providing interactive solutions for businesses via text messaging, SMS, MMS and WAP. Supported by every major wireless carrier and working on over 98% of all cell phones, the company offers Cellifieds (mobile classifieds), private label mobile search tools, click-to-chat/live chat, click-to-text, Mobile IM (MIM) applications, customized alerting and the only interactive property marketing service for real estate. The company has won numerous awards including Most Innovative Technology by Inman News and two Newspaper Association of America awards for its client: a NAA Edgie and PRESSTIME technology award for Innovative Operations.

April 25, 2007 in Press Releases   |   No Comments