Company History
Guinness Telli*Phone Corporation, a Nevada corporation, was originally incorporated on July 8, 1993 as U.S. Telli*Phone Corporation. The corporate name was changed to Guinness Telli*Phone Corporation on September 13, 1993.
Telli's first online business tool for the local marketplace was called the Telli Pages Directory, and it was set up in Marin County, California.
The directory featured categorized listings for many of Marin County's businesses and organizations. Since then, we have developed our technology from a simple online community information source into a line of revolutionary new interactive online business tools for the local marketplace.
Today, Telli technology provides a fully-functional instant marketing and communications platform and complete online directory tailored specifically for the local community.
The development of our tools and software began in 1980. Using $1,000,000 of his own funds and an additional $5,000,000 raised from various private sources, Telli CEO and President Lawrence Guinness founded Guinness Productions, Inc. to develop various educational computer software programs and authoring systems.
In 1985 he founded Guinness Computer Television Corporation to develop software for a computer networking and navigational system to distribute information via telephone lines. The materials, products, and computer software programs developed since 1980 have been integrated into Telli's current technology and business tools.
The Original Telli Pages
In 1999, Telli made the original Telli Pages Directory available online to residents of Marin County, California—an affluent community just north of San Francisco. PC users could access the directory by direct dial-up to our server.
At first, we distributed CD-ROMs to community residents at local trade shows to provide this access. In May 2000, the directory was made available to the public on the Web at www.telli.com.
Building Directory Listings
Initially, content editors were hired to enter and update information in the Telli Pages Directory. These content editors were given the task of calling businesses and organizations on a regular basis to find out their special features and services. Telli Pages editors were assigned specific commercial and non-profit accounts in the area and helped keep information current by editing their Telli Pages and modifying listing categories.
Researching the Marketplace
To promote the Telli Pages Directory and generate users from around the community, Telli published a small bi-monthly newspaper that was delivered to every home and business in Marin County over a 3-month period. The newspaper contained human-interest stories, Telli background articles, and paid advertisements to highlight businesses using the Telli Directory.
Placing the Telli Pages Directory online and promoting it allowed us to conduct extensive market research on how Telli technology was used in the community, and also gave us our first opportunity, after years of development, to test our online software on a mass audience and improve its efficiency.
Our sales team interviewed business owners as well as community residents to find out how they used the directory, and how it could be improved to meet their needs.
In April 2001 we unveiled all the improvements we made based on our market research. Most importantly, our simple directory became a platform through which small businesses could gain access to our interactive business tools and real-time marketing software.
Additionally, the process of creating and maintaining our directory listings became entirely automated with our Telli AdMaker technology. The Telli Community Directory had a completely new look and, instead of being built from scratch by content editors (a considerable overhead cost), was set up automatically from the local Bell listings.
The Telli Directory also featured the new TelliPage Tools that gave information providers the ability to modify their own listing categories, special features, and instantly create and update their own TelliPages.
Advertising & Promotion
In spring of 2005 we felt we were ready to begin a full operation to promote Telli in the Marin area.
We contracted an advertising agency to conduct a limited Telli Marin promotional campaign, beginning during the last week in May of 2005 for an 8 week period, as a test to determine how many Telli users could be generated through packaged promotions without follow-up and direct contact.
The purpose of this marketing test was to launch a major advertising campaign to:
- Achieve name recognition for Telli Marin throughout the entire area and
- Increase the number of Telli daily page views.
The advertising material highlighted the fact that looking up information in Telli Marin was fast and easy. The material also emphasized that the information in Telli Marin was comprehensive, complete and up-to-date. Our slogan was, "If it's in Marin, it's on telli.com."
The promotional program consisted of the following:
A full page color ad was placed in one of the free, weekly tabloids, the Pacific Sun, covering approximately 34,000 households in Marin. (Total households in Marin are 108,000).
Each week the newspaper mailed out 22,000 copies to households in the more affluent areas of Central Marin and placed 12,000 copies in "free pick-up" newspaper boxes strategically located throughout Marin.
The ad continued for six weeks from the last week in May through to the edition that was sent out the last week of June 2005.
A large banner was placed on the side of 33 buses (the side of the bus where passengers embark) traveling throughout Marin County for the same six week period that our advertisement appeared in the Pacific Sun.
Two slides advertising Telli Marin were shown in conjunction with other business ad slides in all movie theatres throughout Marin during a twenty minute period prior to the showing of the main feature.
Each ad was display approximately 3 - 4 times during this period. One slide promoted the kind of local information appearing in Telli Marin and the other slide promoted the fact that Telli offers people the opportunity to enter free classified advertisements.
A brochure was mailed to all households in Marin during the second and third week in June. The brochure promoted Telli as having information about everything to do in Marin: shopping, entertainment and local activities.
A small mailing of the same brochure was made to approximately 16,000 selected businesses in Marin.
Future Plans
Telli's ultimate goals are:
- That use of the TelliPage Tools will grow within the community primarily through promotion and support from local businesses and community groups who will use Telli for their own benefit.
- That people will come to rely on the Telli Directory as their primary source for local information.
- That every Telli Directory will operate successfully and profitably as a small business within a single community.