Rogers Wireless Blackberry users can now know it all with AskMeNow, a mobile information service providing content such as headline news, sports scores, weather, stock quotes, directory assistance, directions, flight times, and hotel information. Darryl Cohen, CEO of AskMeNow, says the company is already working with Canadian ad firms, and marketers interested in advertising will soon be able to access a sign-up page from its Web site (askmenow.com). AskMeNow is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ocean West Holding Corporation in Irvine, CA.
As much Canadian content as possible is being added to the system. Temperatures and distances are metric; sports scores for the NHL and the CFL; Canadian postal codes for directory assistance and directions as well as stock quotes from the TSX are already available. AskMeAnything is a proprietary Internet-based feature of the service that allows users to literally ask anything (in natural language) via text messaging – and it’s available to customers roaming in one of any 80 countries. The answer is sent back and the 75-cent fee for each question is added to their monthly Rogers statement. A text ad message one or two lines long accompany each question answered. No ads are sent independent of an answer and are only sent in the body of an answer, and therefore only when a user has opted to receive an answer. All advertising featured on AskMeNow in Canada will either be from Canadian companies or from multinational organizations that target consumers in Canada. Content sponsorship opportunities are available but currently ads can only be text format. Video capabilities will be added within the next 12 months.
