Since mid-August, when it launched its PrimeCasting division, Toronto’s OutdoorPartner Media has signed contracts with national advertisers in excess of US$860,000. Bluetooth technology embedded in more than 700,000 payphone clusters in American cities will deliver branded, multimedia content to consumers’ mobile phones and PDAs. CEO Mark Brodkin tells Media in Canada that rollout of his company’s first deal, which is with a branch of the US military he’s not yet at liberty to name, will begin on American military bases later this month.

For Canadian advertisers, Brodkin expects to launch a similar initiative north of the US border within the next 12 months, which he believes will be a first in this country. With Bluetooth transmitters located in high-traffic payphone kiosks, he says mobile devices located within 30 feet can receive ringtones, wallpaper, coupons, video and MP3s.

‘As cellphones are becoming more of a mobile entertainment tool, as opposed to purely a communications tool,’ says Brodkin, ‘there’s a tremendous amount of benefit for advertisers to distribute their messages using Bluetooth (embedded) in banks of payphones – or on billboards that aren’t higher than 30 feet from where people are standing with their mobiles, which is already being done on subway platforms in New York and London.’

www.outdoorpartner.com