Revol rolls out idle-screen ads: Full deployment follows successful trial

After a trial involving 5,000 users, regional wireless carrier Revol has decided to go forward with a full launch of a mobile advertising service that the company said has achieved engagement rates of close to 50%.
The company will begin marketing the service, Revol Perks, to its customers tomorrow. The Revol Perks service makes use of idle-screen advertising, in which ads are served up on the phone’s idle screen when the device is not in use. However, ads aren’t the only content-weather information, sports scores or information on local events also are provided.
Customers can click on an ad when it appears, or can access them later from a list of recent offers. Revol said the ads don’t hinder the operations of the phone.
“We were very pleased with the response that we received from customers, and acceptance of this product,” said Rocky Crossland, president and CEO of Revol. “We think that this really brings a cutting-edge delivery of content and advertising to the customer.”
Privately held Revol, which offers flat-rate calling service in parts of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, western Pennsylvania and western New York, partnered with mobile advertising company Mobile Posse earlier this year for the trial.
According to Jon Jackson, CEO of Mobile Posse, the trial achieved total engagement rates of around 45%. Around 15% of participants clicked on an ad while it appeared on the screen, and another 30% accessed it later.
Comparatively, Internet click-through rates tend to be less than 1%, he said.
The Revol ad trial attracted 17 advertisers including a local CBS affiliate and franchises such as Panera Bread. Jackson said the advertisers were attracted to the trial not because of the number of people involved, but because of the promise of the mobile medium.
“They saw this delivery mechanism and they felt like it would do things for their business,” Jackson said.
Interestingly, Crossland said trial participants asked for more ads.
“That was kind of an eye-popper for me, because I was very concerned about the amount of advertising-but I guess it goes to the value of the advertising as well,” he said.
During the trial, customers were offered a one-time $10 discount on their wireless bills as an incentive to sign up. Now, however, Revol will offer $20 to $60 discounts on the cost of a phone as an incentive.
Revol’s Perk service can segment ads based on customers’ billing zip code, but not their current location. Jackson said Mobile Posse has the ability to do some location-based services-such as allowing users to search for nearby locations of a restaurant for which they received a coupon-but that such a service is not part of its deal with Revol.
Crossland said Mobile Posse’s platform only loads ads while the carrier’s CDMA2000 1x data network is idle, and that the service did not require the installation of any additional network resources.
Revol’s moves into wireless advertising are some of the most aggressive yet by a carrier. Sprint Nextel Corp. was one of the first to play in the space by selling ad space on its wireless Internet service, while others have made tentative moves as well.
Indeed, MVNO Virgin Mobile USA operates a program that gives airtime to customers who agree to watch ads, and Mobile virtual network operator Xero Mobile has plans for an ad-supported service, although the company remains in terminal pre-launch status.