Mobile is the medium for ad campaigns

Geoffrey Handley

By the end of the year cellphone screens could look more like miniature internet portals - complete with banner ads - say mobile entrepreneurs Derek and Geoffrey Handley.

The brothers set up text promotion company The Hyperfactory in 2000, a business that now has offices in Auckland, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York and India, and a growing focus on 3G phone content.

Derek, 27, says that in the past year major international companies have been experimenting with pushing their brand through 3G's video capabilities.

That experimentation will continue this year with a focus on turning the phone into a "channel" or advertising medium - with company messages appearing in phone-based games and on banners in mobile search engines.

"It's beginning to start to mirror things the web has been doing for 10 years", Derek says of the mobile phone.

"The richness [of 3G video] is where it's going to bring a lot of opportunities. Text is always going to be there as a driver to link all the different mediums but the video experience is going to be changed by all the bandwidth expansions that are available around the world."

Last year, The Hyperfactory produced a channel approach for Adidas' sponsorship of Real Madrid's China Tour. Soccer fans were able to view game video clips and player interviews through the Adidas portal on their phone.

The Handleys say they are working on similar portals for New Zealand clients, although none are ready to go public yet.

"This is great because these are clients that we've had in the SMS space who are now allocating budget to the 3G side of things," says Geoffrey, 30.

"They can see where they can mirror their TV and outdoor spend - they can see it live and in front of them whereas the SMS space was a lot harder because you only have 160 characters in black and white."

The brothers started the business because "we decided that we wanted to do something different", says Geoffrey, who returned from working for technology companies in Hong Kong in 2000.

At the same time as they set up The Hyperfactory they were also involved in establishing Feverpitch, a much-hyped online gambling portal that was listed on the Stock Exchange's secondary board for a short time.

The pair are upbeat about plans to take their business to more countries.

Derek spent the end of last year looking at opportunities in North and South America. In mobile applications, he says the continent is well behind Asia, but has huge potential.

"Early stage text campaigns are really just starting to be kicked off there, but when America does something and throws money behind it, it happens very quickly so it's a very hot market."

Geoffrey Handley
* Who: Director of business development, The Hyperfactory.
* Favourite gadget: "A very old piece of technology: the Ericsson T68i mobile phone. It was the first camera phone when it came out (about four years ago) - it was extremely exciting. Mine still survives."
* Next big thing: Miniature GPS technology.
* Alternative career: "We'd always be doing our own thing - starting up something."
* Spare time: "I am not sure what it is."
* Favourite sci-fi movie: Alien.