News

Media agency tops $1 million in kiosk revenue

February 26, 2004

An advertising/transactional revenue model pioneered by Info Touch Technologies (TSX Venture Exchange:IFT) is getting the attention of several big-name sponsors and recently surpassed $1 million in revenues during a five quarter time period.

Info Touch, which created Clicks and Mortar Media Inc. (CMMI) two years ago as a subsidiary charged with selling sponsorships on its kiosk projects, has enlisted national brands including Coca-Cola, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and M&M/Mars.

Hamed Shahbazi, chairman and chief executive officer of Info Touch, said 35 percent of CMMI's revenue is derived from advertising sales, with the balance from transaction fees. Those include the company's ZapLink kiosks installed at Circle K convenience stores in the Southwest, where many customers pay their wireless phone bills.

"Both the revenue per kiosk as well as the number of kiosks is growing," Shahbazi said. "We believe we have a formula that works for advertising and we believe that it is a reasonably scalable formula."

While he couldn't say how many kiosks are involved in the program, Shahbazi said this revenue milestone is an indication that the program is working.

"Due to the great success we are hving with transactional oriented applications, I believe the split is going to be more like 80/20 transaction to advertising income," he said.

An Info Touch news release said the advertising messages are communicated through plasma screens, POS monitors and signage panels in retail environments.

For related stories, see

"Retail is the word at Phoenix show" "Info Touch announces ZapLink expansion plans" "Info Touch taps CARFAX for ZapLink services"

[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]