Alltel Wireless has launched a new advertiser-supported service that delivers content and offers to the mobile phone's idle screen.

The white-label service, called Alltel Perks, will let subscribers receive customized content such as sports scores, discounts, trivia and weather updates to the screen when the phone is not in use. Idle screen technology specialist Mobile Posse Inc. powers Alltel Perks.

"This is the first major foray for a major carrier to bring the 80 percent of the people who don't use data products into using them," said Jon Jackson, CEO of Mobile Posse, McLean, VA.

McDonald's, ESPN, Pizza Hut, Jiffy Lube, Progressive Insurance and TicketsNow are currently running promotions on Alltel Perks.

The Pizza Hut offer, for example, is a banner for free cinnamon sticks. Clicking on that unit takes the Alltel subscriber to another screen with this message: "Stop by your favorite Pizza Hut & show them this Phone."

The message continues: "Get an order of 5 FREE Cinnamon Sticks with your dine-in Medium or Large Pizza purchase."

Right next to an image of cinnamon sticks and dip are the H56 and MFS-100 codes, along side the Pizza Hut logo.

Alltel claims approximately 14 million subscribers for its wireless service. The Little Rock, AR-based company will soon become part of Verizon Wireless, making the acquirer the leading carrier nationwide.

Mobile Posse previously deployed the idle-screen service for Revol, a small wireless carrier in the Midwest. The company is currently running pilots with some undisclosed tier-one and tier-two carriers.

Malltel
After registration, the Alltel Perks service will proactively deliver offers and content to subscribers when their mobile phone is idle.

As offers download to the device, Alltel subscribers can open the banner to show more content by choosing the View hot button as shown on the phone.

If any other button is chosen, the offer will disappear. This is designed to avoid intrusion.

Airtime charges may apply to the service, but the initial download of the Alltel Perks application from the Alltel Shop is free to Alltel subscribers.

Content delivered includes discount offers from local retailers, restaurant coupons, sports scores and weather forecasts.

All delivered messages are placed in the Recent Offer Menu folder for a short period of time to let customers access current offers and discounts.

The application sends content based on the Alltel subscriber's ZIP code, age, gender, time of day and day of week.

"It's eminently targetable and measurable," Mr. Jackson said. "It's one-on-one marketing. It's easy to create and deploy. It's a few screenshots and let's put it up on a phone.

"You have the creative ready today and it's up within 24 hours," he said.

The advertising units on the Alltel Perks idle screen are not just restricted to banner ads. Subscribers can click to call, click to launch, click to site and click to product information.

Also, advertisers can survey and ask a question.

Upcell
Mobile Posse will monetize the service by serving third-party ads and upselling and cross-selling existing carrier products such as ringtones, wallpapers and mobile games.

Also included the in the upsells for carriers are data plans and upgraded voice plans.

The company can measure response to the ads by click-throughs and the depth of the customer engagement with the content in terms of screens accessed.

"Consumers are starting to see their phones as something that does more than voice or SMS," Mr. Jackson said.

"The other thing is, from a consumer perspective, the service is very, very close to being free," he said. "Ninety-nine percent of the time it's downloaded, most of the product usage is going to be free."

Which raises an interesting issue: Alltel Perks could whet subscriber appetite to upgrade to a better data plan.

"It's really a kind of stepping stone into the use of data products," Mr. Jackson said.