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Guinness Book of Records goes wireless
Friday, September 28 2001
by Andrew McLindon


Riot Entertainment has secured the wireless rights to one of the world's best
selling books, the Guinness Book of Records.



The three-year deal will see the Finnish wireless entertainment company bring the
latest world records to mobile phone users. As well as providing information on
current records, the SMS service will also update subscribers with news on new or
attempted records as they happen, said Riot. 



The service will initially be rolled out in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and
Spain, and will be available in Ireland by the end of the year or early 2002. The
companies said that they would be embarking on a joint global marketing campaign
to promote the service. As part of the deal, users will be able to use the
service to play interactive games and participate in quizzes based on Guinness
World of Record themes.





In fact, Riot is capitalising on an industry that is expected to offer remarkable
revenue potential over the next five years. According to a recent study from
Datamonitor, approximately 41 million people in Europe play games on their mobile
phones or personal digital assistants. It predicts that by 2006, Europe is
expected to have over 150 million wireless gamers and that the combined US,
European and Asia Pacific wireless gaming market, which is currently worth
approximately USD950 million, will grow to USD17.5 billion. 





According to Peter Tyson, games analyst with Datamonitor, these kinds of wireless
entertainment tie-ins will become increasingly prevalent. "Sponsored games are
going to be very popular, particularly if they are tied into real world marketing
campaigns," he told ElectricNews.Net. "For media companies, sponsoring such
games allows them to target a young, consumer-oriented demographic and also helps
to promote their product through word-of-mouth." 



Keywords for icons and ringtones will also be published alongside records in the
2002 edition of the book. Users can then download the tones and icons from the
Internet. For instance, the book lists Julia Roberts is the highest paid actress
per film in Hollywood -- users could then select "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison
as a ringtone. On average, these ringtones and icons will cost STG1.50 each to
download. 



Founded in February, 2000, Riot Entertainment has signed a number of wireless
content deals with media companies including comic book company Marvel and the
makers of The Diary of Bridget Jones. 





Its biggest revenue generator, however, could be the mobile content it will
produce to promote The Lord of The Rings film trilogy. Based on one of the
world's best selling fiction series, the trilogy is expected to rival the latest
Star Wars movie in terms of hype and cinema audience numbers. 



"I view the Lord of the Rings deal as not only a benchmark for the company, but
also for the wireless industry because it shows that major film studios are now
viewing the wireless arena as a serious marketing channel," Jere Teutari, Riot's
marketing manager, told ElectricNews.Net. 





Riot Entertainment currently employs 70 people in offices in Helsinki, Singapore,
Manila, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Los Angeles. The company declined to
discuss its first year revenues, but said it was on target to reach profitability
by 2002.