A new device co-developed in Vancouver may soon allow advertisers to send coupons to customers from their TVs to their smartphones.
The device, called CouponIO, was developed by iSign Media Solutions Inc. (TSX-V:ISD) in partnership with AOpen America.
It is a patent-pending IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) software that allows a small device to “listen” to the audio coming from a TV set.
When an ad comes for which advertisers have a corresponding coupon, it will transmit the coupon to any nearby Bluetooth enabled device and ask the owner if he or she wants to accept it.
“Once the appropriate ad is being played it can send out a high frequency that would trigger the box to send out the coupon,” iSign chief executive officer Alex Romanov told Business in Vancouver. “The commercial comes on and says ‘enable your Bluetooth and we’ll send you a special offer.’”
He added that the technology is not at the commercial stage yet. At this point consumers would have to buy the device and place it near their televisions.
Romanov is hoping TV manufacturers will decide they want to install the CouponIO device into their TVs.
“We are proving that we have this and we feel that someone will want to take control of it,” Romanov said.
Romanov believes there is a big market for the device, especially in the U.S., where a sluggish economy has resulted in a huge demand for coupons. Romanov cites an NCH Marketing Services study that last year reported more than 300 billion coupons were issued in the U.S., 3.3 billion of which were redeemed.
Romanov said it’s not just the ability to transmit coupons that will be of interest to advertisers. The technology will also provide important consumer feedback.
“This will be one of the best ways in the world to gather data and pick up subscribers,” Romanov said. “Because if they pick up that coupon, you know where they live, you know what their paying habits are, etcetera, etcetera.”
CouponIO is just iSign’s latest development. The company is also involved in proximity marketing, which uses Bluetooth technology to transmit multi-media advertising to smartphones from specific locations.
(See “Businesses bank on Bluetooth bonanza” issue 1124; May 10-16.)
ISign is now headquartered in Toronto, but all its engineering and technology development is still done in Vancouver.
Nelson Bennett
Twitter: nbennett_biv