Avesair Announces Early Availability of Industry-First Mobile Marketing Product Suite; Allows Advertisers and Carriers to Fully Leverage SMS and Develop Interactive Dialog Programs.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 2002

Mobile marketing pioneer Avesair, Inc., reached a pivotal milestone today by announcing the early availability of a new suite of products that turns mobile phones and devices into a revenue-generating and awareness-building marketing channel.

The suite is the result of worldwide demand from marketers and carriers for an integrated set of software products that fully leverages two-way SMS dialog messages for marketing, advertising and customer service. For the first time, effective, interactive mobile marketing programs are automated and can be seamlessly integrated with traditional campaigns enabling advertisers to easily incorporate mobile marketing into their media mix.

"We've seen the powerful impact interactive SMS and mobile programs have on marketing campaigns, but to date, the process has been rudimentary with simple one-way messages or significant manual intervention when deployed on a large scale," said Sean Harrison, EVP of business development and marketing, Avesair. "This new suite is the result of industry demand for an automated solution that takes full advantage of the SMS mobile arena as a revenue-generating marketing channel."

The new suite is comprised of a core offering for campaign management, ad creation, targeting and delivery as well as reporting. In addition, there is a set of sophisticated ancillary products including SMS dialog management, list management, advanced SMS and SMSC control, and HTML email--all of which enable Avesair customers to completely utilize the capabilities of mobile devices to connect with consumers.

As a hypothetical example, a major movie studio (or the advertising agency acting on their behalf) can easily incorporate an SMS trivia program into a larger integrated media campaign by adding a `short code' onto a billboard advertisement or packaged good wrapper. In this example, a consumer may see a billboard for the upcoming movie enticing interested parties to send a text message using a short code (for example 445566) from their mobile phones to enter a sweepstakes. By sending a text message to the short code 445566, the consumer is immediately presented with an SMS confirming their desire to enter. If the consumer replies "yes" and answers a few short movie-related trivia questions, he is immediately entered into a sweepstakes to attend an advance screening. Here, Avesair has simplified the process of advancing the consumer through a complicated decision tree giving advertisers valuable information that can be used to test campaign efficacy and build brand relationships.

Likewise, wireless carriers need mobile applications, mobile media and technology to enable internal marketing. Avesair carrier customers will use the suite to deliver programs designed to drive subscriber awareness about new plans or services; educate subscribers on how to use new wireless services; switch to a better rate plan; and more. For instance, Avesair enables carriers to set a threshold for customers approaching the maximum minutes on their pre-paid calling plan. Using Avesair, the carrier can then send an SMS message to a subscriber enabling them to renew their pre-paid calling program with a few simple steps in order to avoid returning to a store to renew minutes and alternatively avoid subscriber churn.

"Since our inception we have been working with leading companies such as AT&T Wireless, Nokia, and MSN Mobile whose give-and-take relationships have been invaluable in driving future product direction and serve as the cornerstone of our success," said Harrison. "We've built this new product suite to address emerging needs and to give our customers additional functionality to further increase their success with our solutions."

The new technology enhancements in the suite are unmatched. The new dialog management product manages the entire dialog process, tracking results and status for millions of potential subscribers on behalf of a carrier or marketing agency, and includes standard templates allowing easy creation of interactive dialog campaigns for trivia games, sweepstakes, contests, and customer service surveys. With the sophisticated subscriber list management capabilities lists are easily built and managed allowing advertisers to run granularly targeted mobile programs with a consumer-controlled dynamic opt-in function, optimizing the success of each campaign. It also automatically manages the entire opt-out process ensuring consumer privacy is not jeopardized. In addition, the suite includes advanced SMSC and SMS control ensuring SMS messages are not dropped at the SMSC due to the lack of throttle control, as well as HTML email support to manage mobile and email marketing through one interface.

Avesair is working with its installed client base to promote the early release of their program and it will be generally available to interested parties later this year. For more information or to view samples of the new programs, please visit www.avesair.com.

About Avesair:

Based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., Avesair is the premier developer of mobile marketing products, programs, and services for carriers, publishers, advertisers, and media companies. Avesair enables partners to drive media revenue and increase adoption of wireless data services. Leading companies, including 12snap, AT&T Wireless, Boston.com, Enpocket, Mercedes-Benz, MSN Mobile, Nokia, and Volvo, use Avesair's technology and services. For more information, visit www.avesair.com