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| Akoo and McDonald's at Woodfield Mall Launch m-Venue Akoo and McDonald's at Woodfield Mall have announced the launch of m-Venue, a patent-pending entertainment and marketing platform that enables McDonald's customers to search, select, and "activate" in-store digital content - including music, music videos, and movie previews - with their mobile phones or Internet-connected mobile devices. m-Venue allows patrons to choose a wide variety of audio and video content from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Sony Pictures, among others, via text messaging (SMS), the mobile Internet, or a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop. Selections are performed on demand in designated multimedia zones within the restaurant or placed into a queue if another selection is already playing. For a limited time, the service is available at no cost to customers, compliments of participating McDonald's locations. m-Venue debuts in McDonald's at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, where 10 multimedia flat-panel screens have been established. Additional McDonald's locations throughout the Chicagoland area and the southeastern region are launching m-Venue by year's end. Akoo is also in discussions to roll out the platform at numerous "big box" retail, dining, and leisure entertainment chains by early 2007. In addition to on-demand digital content, m-Venue offers McDonald's customers day-parted ambient audio/video programming; a music ID and discovery feature, whereby users can identify the artist and name of any song playing in participating locations by sending a text message; and ultimately, a digital store where patrons can purchase and download digital content over-the-air to their mobile devices. Since the m-Venue platform also tracks consumers' usage behaviors and preferences in a non-intrusive way, McDonald's locations will be able to employ more effective mobile-based promotions, loyalty & rewards programs, and opt-in targeted marketing campaigns. Akoo's m-Venue platform was recently featured in the Innovations pavilion at the 2006 Worldwide McDonald's Convention, where 15.000 attendees gathered. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Networking News :: home page |