WavBall dials in on integrating cellphones with tourism, more

A 2009 trip to Alcatraz inspired a Cape Girardeau father and son, but not in the way one might expect.

Steven and Jonathan Fritzler had been trying to figure out a way to tell the history of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri, and the audio tour at the famous San Francisco prison gave them an idea.

"I said, 'How we could do that here in Cape,'" Steven says. The solution was cellphones.

"From that understanding that most people have cellphones, we thought, why not use it to deliver information and make a business," Steven says. "So everybody wins."

The Fritzlers started WavBall and began offering audio tours of five historic sites. Now the company is offering tours at 36 locations, including the Common Pleas Courthouse, the floodwall and Old St. Vincent Church, and Jonathan says the company has the ability to add more. At participating sites, signs are posted with a toll-free number visitors can call from their cellphones to hear audio descriptions of the places they're visiting.

"We didn't know what to expect," Jonathan says. "Maybe 30 people a month, but we've had quadruple that, easily. We had 400 people in a month going to different sites."

WavBall sells sponsorship of the audio tours, allowing local businesses to reach visitors via sponsorships. "In most of the cases, we're providing an opportunistic type of service," Jonathan says. "Someone who wouldn't normally do something, did something. Take advantage of it. Especially if you're in proximity to the site [of the audio tour], why not capture them? Make them a customer."

With that in mind, the next step for the audio tours is a text message component.

"We're going to be adding text messaging because it lets us use couponing more accurately," Jonathan says. An audio tour would include a verbal ad from the sponsoring business. That verbal ad could give customers the option to press a key to receive the business's special; following the prompt would trigger a coupon to be delivered via text message. "It's designed to take advantage of leads that are created on the fly," Jonathan says.

In addition to the audio tours, WavBall is expanding to offer more cellphone-based services.

The one Jonathan says he's most excited about is Adventurehunt. He says it could ideally be used as a fundraising tool and as a fun way for businesses to bring people into their stores by setting up a scavenger hunt or a quest using cellphones and cellphone applications.

"If you're an organization, this can provide a fun, exciting way for people to have something to do," Jonathan says. For sponsors, it's a great way to drive people to their business "as part of the challenge of finding whatever it is, the quest, scavenger hunt."

The program is flexible and can be tailored to suit a company or organization's needs.

"I wanted to create something I can do with my friends, family, people I don't know, that can be a fun, rewarding experience and different every time," Jonathan says. "This is something that has huge potential to be used in almost any way."

Another service, ArtVoice, allows artists to record a description of their artwork. That way, someone looking at a piece of art in a gallery can access information about that piece when the artist isn't present. "It's liberating for artists; it lets them bridge communication gaps between traditional galleries," Jonathan says.

Similar to tools used by real estate agents to provide information about a property 24/7, Perfect Pitch is a call capture system that can be used for just about anything. If someone was shopping for a car, for example, and visited the lot after hours, he or she could call a number to get information that would traditionally be provided by a salesperson, Jonathan says.

WavBall tested one of its new products, PerfectPar, during the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce golf tournament. Essentially, the service lets golfers get professional tips on how to play a hole; the tips would be sponsored by companies already supporting the tournaments.

Jonathan was inspired to develop the company's PVM (personal voice message) program while his grandmother was in the hospital. "She received flowers and kept asking where (they) were from," he says.

Jonathan saw a way to apply what his company was already doing by incorporating a voice message with a gift. A toll-free number is included on the gift -- right now it comes on a sticker -- and the recipient is able to call and receive a message from the giver.

For more information about any services WavBall offers, go to www.wavball.com.