LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Voice Assist®, Inc. (OTCBB:VSST), an award-winning provider of mobile speech and handsfree solutions, and Augme® Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: AUGT), a technology and services leader in interactive media marketing that offers the only patented end-to-end mobile marketing platform, today announced that the two companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop and market mobile advertising for the Voice Assist service. Voice Assist will add mobile advertising utilizing Augme’s HipCricket® AD LIFE® platform.
The companies will jointly market the capability to mobile carriers, consumer brands, media outlets, retail and other industry sectors.
Voice Assist is an award-winning handsfree solution designed to be compatible with most mobile phones, including all Apple iPhones, Windows mobile phones, Android devices, and BlackBerry phones. With the push of one button, users can access a virtual assistant for handsfree, voice-activated communication. Voice dialing, reading and sending email and text messages, and posting content to social networks including Facebook and Twitter, can be accomplished in a handsfree manner using the Voice Assist solution. The Hipcricket® AD LIFE® mobile marketing and advertising platform can reach mobile consumers via an extended network of mobile applications and publishers. AD LIFE® offers multiple engagement solutions to reach consumers on their mobile phone in many formats including display, rich media, idle screen, video and SMS.
eMarketer estimates mobile advertising spending in the U.S. reached $1.45 billion in 2011, up 89% from $769.6 million in 2010. This year, U.S. mobile ad spending is estimated to grow 80% to $2.61 billion.
“As mobile advertising continues to grow, advertisers are becoming increasingly more interested in targeting mobile consumers with location-based offers. Augme owns foundational, patent-protected technology that is being utilized by Voice Assist to localize content. Voice Assist technology makes it possible to advertise to a captive audience that is driving while using the handsfree interface,” said Paul Arena, CEO, Augme Technologies. “The capability Augme provides enables a localized service response that, when combined with voice recognition technology of Voice Assist, will help create a unique, mobile application-based voice advertising platform. Audio enables mobility, and our AD Serve® platform is taking steps to develop innovative new mobile technologies. Navigating Internet and advertising content by voice are the next progressions in this area of focus, and we’re pleased to have this connection to vital voice recognition technologies.”
“Integration with Augme’s patented AD LIFE® platform gives us instant access to advertising inventory that can be presented in contextually relevant ways as part of the Voice Assist experience,” said Michael Metcalf, Chairman and CEO, Voice Assist. “This will allow us to offer a free version of our service that is ad supported.”
About Augme Technologies, Inc.
Augme® Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: AUGT) provides strategic services and mobile marketing technology to leading consumer and healthcare brands. Selling its products and services under the Hipcricket® brand, Augme’s platform has provided measurable successes across an industry-leading 175,000 campaigns for its clients, which include many of America’s brand-name leaders (e.g., Macy’s, MillerCoors, Nestle, Clear Channel) in a variety of industries, along with their agencies. Augme’s offerings allow marketers, brands, and agencies to plan, create, test, deploy, and track mobile marketing programs across every mobile channel, including SMS, MMS, 2D/QR codes, mobile websites, advertising networks, social media and branded apps. Augme’s platforms facilitate consumer brand interaction and the ability to track and analyze campaign results. Using its own patented device-detection and proprietary mobile content adaptation software, AD LIFE® solves the mobile marketing industry problem of disparate operating systems, device types, and on-screen mobile content rendering. Augme also provides business-to-consumer solutions, including national mobile couponing campaigns, strategic mobile healthcare tools, custom mobile application development, and consumer data tracking and analytics. In addition to AD LIFE®, Augme in 2011 acquired the assets of Hipcricket®, Inc. and JAGTAG, Inc. and licenses the digital broadcast platform BOOMBOX®. The Company’s industry-leading patent portfolio includes 13 issued patents and over 80 pending patents in the U.S. and internationally with over 2,000 claims in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (‘TMT’) space. Augme is headquartered in New York City, with operations in Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Tucson. For more information, visit http://www.augme.com or www.hipcricket.com.
Augme Technologies™, Hipcricket®, Augme®, AD LIFE®, BOOMBOX®, AD SERVE® and the Augme logo are trademarks of Augme Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2009-12.
About Voice Assist, Inc.
Voice Assist (OTCBB: VSST) is an award-winning provider of mobile speech solutions designed to be used from any phone and eliminates the need to press buttons on smartphones, tablet PCs or other network-connected devices. Mobile developers and cloud-based service providers can leverage Voice Assist’s platform to provide voice access to any application through its rapid application development environment and mobile widgets making it easy to add a powerful voice interface to almost any application. Voice Assist also offers its handsfree safe driving application and CRM-by-voice applications direct to the public and/or through resellers and private label OEM relationships. For more information on the company, visit www.voiceassist.com.
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