Carol Erickson, CTO, YellowPepper

Carol Erickson doesn't talk like a telecom chief technology officer. Indeed, Erickson is a lot less likely to be caught talking to fellow engineers in the bits-and-bytes jargon favored by those with EE degrees and more likely to be chatting up an ad agency exec about “value offers” and “user profiles.” Perhaps that's because as CTO of YellowPepper, Erickson's job isn't just making sure the company's technology platform works. She has become chief spokesperson for the Boston-based firm that works with ad agencies and consumer products companies to integrate wireless elements into their marketing campaigns.

“It's not just slapping a brand on a text message,” Erickson said. “The mobile phone number is quickly becoming the second most important phone number in a user's life. You really need to think about developing a friendship with that consumer.”

YellowPepper has worked with a wide variety of brands in Europe and the U.S., and it's almost impossible to pinpoint any as typical. Among its most successful campaigns was with Buzzard's Bay Brewing, a Westport, Mass.-based brewer that wanted to increase its profile. YellowPepper created a “fishing” game that let anyone send the text message “fish” to a specific number and receive back a message stating what they “caught.” The top catch was a year's supply of beer.

The average player sent 45 messages a month, and the brewery's Web site traffic increased 72%. “It was the perfect offering for the brewery because you get disposable product out the door,” Erickson said.

The same type of campaign is working for non-perishables. One of YellowPepper's current targets is music labels, which have brand-name artists but may not be seeing all of their potential revenue streams.

“The consumer is looking for premium content and willing to pay for it, but wants it from her brand,” Erickson said. “The value might be a mobile fan pack with Britney Spears wallpaper and a customized ringtone.”

For carriers, the potential is not only increased traffic, but also a cut of any transaction. The big unknown is how many times that revenue can be sliced. Currently, most U.S. carriers want too much of that pie, according to several content providers. Erickson believes that may be changing.

“We're at the precipice of something really big that we're asking them to pull it forward,” she said. “I think we'll start to see that start to balance out.”