Marshawn Lynch may no longer be a Seahawk, but that’s not stopping a Seattle-area wireless carrier from teaming with the NFL star for a new phone service called Beast Mobile. A hero in Seattle sports history thanks to his six years as a running back for the Seahawks, the partnership is just the latest business venture built around Lynch’s Beast Mode persona. The idea comes from mobile industry veteran Leigh Hunt, founder and CEO of Kirkland, Wash.-based FreeMo, whose advertising-supported mobile app is aimed at helping customers earn credits to drive down their monthly cell phone bills. Beast Mobile, which will launch on Sprint’s network, promises customers a no-contract smart phone service with unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data for $24 per month. In order to save money and get more data, users must engage with personalized offers, discounts and suggestions from partners via the accompanying Beast Mobile app. “We’re giving people the opportunity to get free cellphone service every month by engaging in targeted advertising from their device,” Hunt said. “If someone doesn’t care to engage in advertising that month, they can pay $24 — which still undercuts most pre-paid plans and is significantly lower than big carrier, post-paid plans. The idea is to reward subscribers for doing things they’re already doing on their phone — downloading apps, shopping online, watching videos, etc.” The activities that users engage in have credit values listed next to them. Once a subscriber engages with an offer or completes an activity, credits are reflected in the account section of the accompanying Beast Mobile App. Subscribers can then apply their credits to their $24 cellphone bill or redeem them for more data. As for Lynch, who now runs over people for his hometown Oakland Raiders, he’s a part owner in Beast Mobile and involved in various aspects of the business. And among other things aside from football, he owns Beast Mode apparel and gear shops in Oakland and Seattle; he still promotes the Skittles candy that he threw all over the place at CenturyLink Field; and even Amazon came calling last year to have him drive the Treasure Truck and hand out branded Echo devices. Source: GeekWire |