As we approached the new decade, one of the buzzwords was 'coopertition' — finding ways to embrace the competition to increase potential. Just a short time before that, at a Gartner conference, I was shocked to recognize a significant change in Bill Gates that would seem to support this position. Sitting on a panel with his major competitors, in the past had they directed challenging comments toward him you could feel him restraining himself to avoid leaping across the stage to accost them. Instead, this time he was calm and collected — a decidedly distinct change. But there was one telling comment that explained his demeanor. He said something to the effect of, "Every time the competition makes a dollar the pie just gets bigger. I realized that this isn't a zero sum game."

Now a new group of entrepreneurs has found a way to capitalize on 'zero' — free phone calls. In metropolitan areas of New York, phone kiosks have been set up allowing the caller to make 4-minute long distance calls for free. The tradeoff? The kiosk is an advertising billboard. Just like advertising was the economic mechanism which provided tele-vision at no cost to the masses, now tele-communication is going economically retro.

The responsible entity, Popa Media, often finds an 'open arms' business demeanor as they hunt down new locations to position kiosks. Where in many situations they would need to rent space to place a phone, they are often offered free space because of the additional foot traffic the phone draws. After all, people have to 'stand still' for those 4 minutes and are likely to take a closer look at their surroundings than they might otherwise. Popa capitalizes on this with the byline: "The hottest branding platform on the planet."

Additionally, the phone itself provides an interactive component to the experience. Many advertisers are local businesses. The phone is equipped with a speed-dial number directly to the advertisers. Finding the right combination of location and offering is key. In an installation on the campus of SUNY an apartment advertisement got a call 5 minutes after the promotion was put in place.

This 'branding platform' helps shorten the distance between sellers and potential buyers, all the while offering an economic return to the buyers for their attention.