Australian startup Unlockd has a neat recipe of serving ads to lower phone bills, and Boost Mobile is ready to bring it to the United States.
Sprint subsidiary Boost Mobile signed a deal with Unlockd to offer that intriguing advertising platform stateside, enabling more than 9 million U.S. users to take advantage of it.
While ads may be annoying or downright intrusive for many consumers, they might be more acceptable or even desirable if they help lower your bills. That's exactly what Unlockd offers. Basically, it pays users to view ads by reducing their monthly phone bills.
Users who agree to receive ads from Unlockd partners will see the advertisements when they unlock their device, and their monthly phone bill will get a $5 price cut. Unlockd partners currently include Starbucks, Hulu, Lyft and Levi's, all of which teamed up with the startup to deliver advertising content on users' phones.
The new partnership with Boost Mobile and Unlocked also brings Yahoo and Twitter to the table. Yahoo will integrate its search bar into the lock screen of the device, while Twitter users will get exclusive offers and deals through MoPub.
This strategy marks a change in the advertising revenue stream and it's good news for telecom providers as well as consumers, believes Doug Smith, Sprint Telecom director of Prepaid.
"Providing Boost subscribers with options to reduce their cost to communicate is in line with our goal of being the value leader in prepaid," Smith notes in the press release.
This new initiative that brings the Unlockd solution to Boost Mobile users is called Boost Dealz, and is available for both existing and new customers. This option is not mandatory, it gives users the chance to choose.
"Boost Dealz, built on the Unlockd solution, is an industry-first, completely optional opportunity for our customers to earn value in exchange for learning about products and services aligned with their interests. In addition, it delivers a new revenue stream to our business while providing an innovative avenue for advertisers and media publishers to reach a highly targeted audience," adds Smith.
For now, Unlockd will reach the 9 million customers on Boost Mobile, but it could significantly extend if Sprint decides to implement this solution on all of its services. With Sprint on board, Unlockd would reach 58 million customers in the United States, but it remains to be seen whether this will really happen.
Unlockd plans to keep expanding worldwide, and it's already made notable efforts in this regard. The startup currently has offices in Melbourne, London, New York and Seattle, and it's poised to further widen its horizons.
Matt Berriman, co-founder and CEO of Unlockd, says the company already scored deals with telecom operators in the UK, Asia and Europe. Unlockd seems to be on a roll, and Sprint's Boost Mobile could help it gain even more steam.
In a mobile-driven world, phone bills are getting increasingly steep and means to lower costs are becoming more appealing than ever.
Carriers are also striving to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market. Sprint, for its part, recently decided to fire $2,500 employees in a bid to cut down on operating expenses and turn its business around. Competition is fierce with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile as its main rivals, but this new Boost Dealz should open up a new revenue stream.
Unlockd Demo Video from Unlockd on Vimeo.
