Mobile shopping makes it debut in Singapore at Jurong Point Shopping Centre with CELPH alert.
CELPH, developer and application provider of mobile value-added services, will debut a new opt-in permission marketing service using Interactive SMS technology with Jurong Point Shopping Centre in Singapore this weekend.

The home-grown service – CELPH Alert, the first of its kind in Asia, empowers any shopper at Jurong Point to selectively receive electronic flyers and coupons from participating merchants in the form of a text-message on their mobile phone.

“With the increasing awareness and acceptance of mobile marketing opportunities, we felt that it was very critical to create a service that effectively addresses both the needs of retail merchants and mobile users,” says Gary Chan, founder and CEO of CELPH. “Merchants are increasingly aware that the SMS can be a very powerful form of marketing because you must read an SMS that arrives in your phone before it can be deleted.
This represents an unprecedented opportunity for 100-percent visibility for ‘SMS-advertisements’!”

“At the same time, we wanted to tackle head-on the increasing number of warning signs from abuse of this opportunity in the form of unsolicited SMS ‘spam’,” adds Gary.
“It is absolutely vital to protect the privacy of all mobile users while being able to meet their individual needs.”

The activation of CELPH Alert for the shopper is straightforward – all visitors to the mall are greeted by clearly posted instructions at each of Jurong Point’s 7 entrances.
A mobile user, regardless of network provider, opts-in to CELPH Alert by sending a text-message to an advertised number with the number of hours he or she intends to spend at the mall for the day.
CELPH Alert will acknowledge the SMS with a reply and activate the service for that mobile shopper only for the specified length of time.
In addition, the shopper also has the ability to interactively manage the profile retailers to receive messages from, or can “unsubscribe” from the system at anytime.

With the activation of CELPH Alert, shoppers will be alerted of promotions, events, announcements and even be encouraged to participate in competitions via text-messages sent periodically to their mobile phones, free-of-charge to them.

Jurong Point and many tenants including Giordano, Wywy Shop, City Chain and Billy Bombers have adopted CELPH Alert with the goal to improve both sales and awareness of products and services at the mall.
Michael Leong, General Manager of Jurong Point Shopping Centre says, “we are using CELPH Alert both to the benefit of shoppers at our mall and our merchants alike.
By increasing the level of participation from the traffic coming through Jurong Point, and increased opportunity for contact with shoppers, we hope to provide a more exciting shopping experience that generates increased sales for our tenants.”

The CELPH Alert system is powered by an automated web-based publishing system developed by CELPH and delivered to mobile phones through the company’s service provider, Mobileway Asia Pacific, a leading enabler of data delivery for mobile applications.

“We had to select a service provider who is able to handle a high volume of SMS traffic, and at the same time carrier agnostic as we wanted to ensure that CELPH Alert at Jurong Point was available to 100- percent of mobile users,” says Gary.

“The wireless marketing arena is an upcoming segment with significant growth potentials, given the increase in wireless transactions and opportunities for monetised services.
SMS, if used ethically and non-intrusively, can be a powerful direct marketing tool for marketeers,” says Cyrille Even, General Manager and Vice President of Mobileway Asia Pacific.
“M-commerce needs to be supported by a secure and robust messaging network.
24/7 vendor support thus becomes a crucial element in the value chain, in providing excellent marketing and technical expertise for a consistent delivery mechanism to all mobile subscribers.”

About CELPH

CELPH is a global company headquartered in Singapore that specialises in the development, aggregation and delivery of mobile value-added services over Interactive SMS, WAP, VoiceXML, personal Java, PocketPC, Palm and Symbian OS.
The company’s two-fold vision is to build applications for mobile operators to raise revenue potential and for enterprises to extend their reach and value to their customers. As part of the delivery of carrier- and enterprise-grade mobile solutions, CELPH has also developed and markets BurntAmber Server, a powerful technology platform that powers all of CELPH’s mobile applications.
Many of the technology building blocks that drive usability in wireless applications were debuted in BurntAmber, one of the keys to CELPH’s successes in mobile applications – including session-management over SMS, the ability to automatically harvest content on Internet databases and responding to requests formed in natural language.
More information about CELPH can be obtained on the Internet at www.celph.com.

About Jurong Point Shopping Centre
Jurong Point Shopping Centre is arguably the most successful suburban mall in Singapore.
Located in Jurong in the western part of the island nation, the cenre is virtually sandwiched between the Boon Lay MRT (mass-rapid transit) Station and a 65-bay bus interchange.
Supported by a residential and office population that is close to 400,000, the 7-level centre has a lettable space of 408,000 sq ft and more than 200 speciality shops and eateries.
The centre currently enjoys an average shoppers’ traffic of 1,600,000 per month, which rises to more than 2,000,000 during festive months in Singapore.
More information on Jurong Point Shopping Centre can be obtained on the Internet at www.jurongpoint.com.sg.

About Mobileway
Mobileway Inc is a leading provider of global data access over wireless networks for business and mobile operators.
Mobileway manages the deployment of wireless data applications and enables associated payments.
The company’s global network and value-added wireless services are designed to enable network operators, content providers, enterprises and financial institutions to bring customised, user-authorised, and secure data service to mobile users.
Mobileway offers wireless data services that include text-messages, ring tones, m-commerce solutions, and service data such as copyright reports, click-rate reports, phone software updates, and user validation cryptograms.
A North American company, Mobileway has offices located throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.Mobileway.com.