Ronald Wiplinger
2005-Apr-21 17:06 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements
I am asked very often to let the user try for a while. And of course they want to have it for free. However, there is nothing like free lunch out there. I got the idea to "bother" these people, by playing an advertisement before they actually make the call and even after a certain time. Has anybody done that before? Ideas I got for that is: 1. put the caller into a conference call with the advertisment channel 2. let the caller listen to the first advertisement before inviting the other party to the conference 3. keep playing ads, till the called party is in the conference too. 4. immediately silent the ads, when called party pickes up 5. wait the desired time and start to play the next advertisement block. Advanced feature: 1. give the caller the chance to pay for the call by key in a password(?), that means: a. it kicks out the advertisement or b. forward the call (????) so that the call is now directly connected. `?' means I am not sure if that is a good idea nor if that is possible bye Ronald
Race Vanderdecken
2005-Apr-22 09:36 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements
Yes, something similar has been done before with PSTN phones. Callers would call a number, listen to a bunch of ads, then get X minutes of free phone time for that one call. This was about 5-10 years ago and was covered in news stories. I think they might still be doing it. Poking around on google it seems to be a viable idea. http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/8061 http://www.directmag.com/mag/marketing_listen_thisfree_long/ Seems advertisers are paying for it. But the dates are old. I think if you could get international calls involved you might have a business. Race "The Tyrant" Vanderdecken -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Ronald Wiplinger Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 8:07 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements I am asked very often to let the user try for a while. And of course they want to have it for free. However, there is nothing like free lunch out there. I got the idea to "bother" these people, by playing an advertisement before they actually make the call and even after a certain time. Has anybody done that before? Ideas I got for that is: 1. put the caller into a conference call with the advertisment channel 2. let the caller listen to the first advertisement before inviting the other party to the conference 3. keep playing ads, till the called party is in the conference too. 4. immediately silent the ads, when called party pickes up 5. wait the desired time and start to play the next advertisement block. Advanced feature: 1. give the caller the chance to pay for the call by key in a password(?), that means: a. it kicks out the advertisement or b. forward the call (????) so that the call is now directly connected. `?' means I am not sure if that is a good idea nor if that is possible bye Ronald _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
A few years ago there was a company that set up in Australia offering free long distance calls, they played an add to you at the beginning and then every so often. Came out with a lot of fanfare and disappeared pretty quickly. Not sure if they went broke (most likely), couldn't find any users that wanted free phone calls (unlikely)or the concept was ahead of it's time (possibility). There was also a couple of people that pushed free dialup internet in return for users having to view a certain amount of their advertising. Unfortunately the business models didn't stack up and they went belly up. cr Message: 1 Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 08:06:57 +0800 From: Ronald Wiplinger <ronald@elmit.com> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com> Message-ID: <42684021.9010307@elmit.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed I am asked very often to let the user try for a while. And of course they want to have it for free. However, there is nothing like free lunch out there. I got the idea to "bother" these people, by playing an advertisement before they actually make the call and even after a certain time. Has anybody done that before? Ideas I got for that is: 1. put the caller into a conference call with the advertisment channel 2. let the caller listen to the first advertisement before inviting the other party to the conference 3. keep playing ads, till the called party is in the conference too. 4. immediately silent the ads, when called party pickes up 5. wait the desired time and start to play the next advertisement block. Advanced feature: 1. give the caller the chance to pay for the call by key in a password(?), that means: a. it kicks out the advertisement or b. forward the call (????) so that the call is now directly connected. `?' means I am not sure if that is a good idea nor if that is possible bye Ronald
Dean Collins
2005-Apr-22 13:58 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements
Yep, remember them well - I think the guy who was running it was called Paul Davies (could be wrong) - no idea if they are still running. I understand the big problem they had was securing advertising contracts, people under estimate the 'startup cost' in securing advertising (lol - something I'm currently trying to do for Australian IPTV) Cheers, Dean -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Craig Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 4:27 PM To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements A few years ago there was a company that set up in Australia offering free long distance calls, they played an add to you at the beginning and then every so often. Came out with a lot of fanfare and disappeared pretty quickly. Not sure if they went broke (most likely), couldn't find any users that wanted free phone calls (unlikely)or the concept was ahead of it's time (possibility). There was also a couple of people that pushed free dialup internet in return for users having to view a certain amount of their advertising. Unfortunately the business models didn't stack up and they went belly up. cr Message: 1 Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 08:06:57 +0800 From: Ronald Wiplinger <ronald@elmit.com> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com> Message-ID: <42684021.9010307@elmit.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed I am asked very often to let the user try for a while. And of course they want to have it for free. However, there is nothing like free lunch out there. I got the idea to "bother" these people, by playing an advertisement before they actually make the call and even after a certain time. Has anybody done that before? Ideas I got for that is: 1. put the caller into a conference call with the advertisment channel 2. let the caller listen to the first advertisement before inviting the other party to the conference 3. keep playing ads, till the called party is in the conference too. 4. immediately silent the ads, when called party pickes up 5. wait the desired time and start to play the next advertisement block. Advanced feature: 1. give the caller the chance to pay for the call by key in a password(?), that means: a. it kicks out the advertisement or b. forward the call (????) so that the call is now directly connected. `?' means I am not sure if that is a good idea nor if that is possible bye Ronald _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Dean Collins
2005-Apr-22 14:38 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements
Yep totally, same in Australia, pricing for long distance calls have crashed and changed the business case for this now and more so in the future. Voice advertising still does have it's place though - maybe in subsidising 'chat' rooms, with these you can definitely set up locally advertising access based on CID. Cheers, Dean -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 5:13 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Demo phones with advertisement announcements On Sat, 2005-04-23 at 07:56 +1130, Craig wrote:> A few years ago there was a company that set up in Australia offering > free long distance calls, they played an add to you at the beginning > and then every so often. > > Came out with a lot of fanfare and disappeared pretty quickly. >In america there was a company broadway that did the same thing. Aparently people didnt want to listen to a bunch of ads for 15 minutes (and it would interrorgate you with 'press number X' after each ad to make sure you werent just cueing minutes). When you place a call if the person didnt answer or it was busy you had to hang up and start all over, minutes were not saved. They did direct call the company doing the advertisement when listening to the ad if the person wanted to try buy the product. The idea seemed to be ok, although advertisers may not go for it since its hardly targeted. The implementation was horrible, if the call doesnt go through you should be able to try a different number. I knew a lot of people that would use that during idle time waiting for friends and what not to get home and would then call. In america now it cant sell well becuase mobile phones are incredibly cheap and most if not all offer unlimited long distance for $20 or less per month and unlimited nights and weekends. To compete with that would be difficult to say the least.> There was also a couple of people that pushed free dialup internet in > return for users having to view a certain amount of their advertising. > Unfortunately the business models didn't stack up and they went belly > up. >In america free.org did dialup for free and got money based on access charges (the fees that phone companies pay each other any time calls go from one network to another). The advertisement based ISPs in america came later, and went away. No one wanted to see them to get what they could pay $10/mo to have without the ads. free.org went under once phone companies blacklisted their dialup numbers due to excessive fraud (I think figures put fraud at about 90% of all calls). Once no one could call, they had no revenue. The reasons that some of these companies went under were lack of planning on the user interface part, or lack of availability (free.org only had 1 city with numbers). I wouldnt imagine it would be hard to implement this in asterisk, however making it work so users are happy, lowering fraudulent callers (see recent litigation against google, yahoo, askjeeves, findwhat and others about fradulent clicks on ad banners), and other such things is the challenge. AT&T also placed advertisements in their calling card plans that they gave soldiers in the middle east. They did this to avoid access charges (if its an 'informational service' there are no access charges) which the FCC didnt approve of. Basically a soldier would call into the system, hear a short ad and then their call would be placed. -- Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com UK +44 870 340 4605 Germany +49 801 777 555 3402 US +1 360 207 0479 or +1 516 687 5200 FreeWorldDialup: 635378