CoolSavings.com, Metrocall Kick Off Pager Campaign

E-marketer CoolSavings.com Inc. took to the wireless world to market itself on Tuesday, launching an advertising campaign on the Metrocall (MCLL) wireless service using Motorola Corp.‘s (MOT) i Kno! technology.

The ads will appear on Metrocall’s Preview Channel service, and eventually on the OnTheGoInfoCast service, which offer customizable weather, traffic, news, sports scores, financial information, and movie reviews.

The companies say that advertising on the information services will consist only of messages that consumers will find of value — those that help save them money. The style and content of advertising messages on wireless devices is a big issue facing pioneers in the field, as no one is quite sure what users will accept.

The i Kno! system is designed to administer, track, and insert advertising into the wireless information services.

“Our early market research reveals that consumers are willing to accept value-added advertising on their pagers if it can lower their service cost,” said John Barrett, director of Motorola’s i Kno! Hub Operations.

“Metrocall’s Preview information services currently delivers four ‘channels of information’ to its existing word paging customers, providing an instant audience for advertisers. We’ve seen other qualitative feedback that suggest consumer response can be phenomenal compared to traditional media.”