That hoariest of social networking devices, the telephone, is making a comeback among Hollywood marketers.
Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are considered essential parts of the entertainment factory’s marketing arsenal. Add another service to the list: SayNow, a tiny Silicon Valley company whose low-key approach — connecting stars and their fans through voice mail — is gaining traction, particularly among teenage audiences.
SayNow has been quietly amassing huge numbers of callers and winning celebrity converts. The free service says it averages 10 million fan calls a month, or about one million voice minutes each day. Use has doubled over the past year, according to Nikhyl Singhal, a company founder. About 65 percent of the callers are teenage girls.
“We effectively create a mobile army, allowing artists to directly motivate and direct their fans,” said Mr. Singhal, who also plans to court athletes and politicians as participants.
SayNow, founded in 2005 with $6 million in venture capital, is essentially a telephone company. Stars are given personal phone numbers to post on their Web sites or mention in television interviews. Fans call and listen to recorded messages.
Callers can also leave voice messages of their own, many of which are then made public on SayNow.com. Callers can sign up to get text alerts when stars like Selena Gomez of “Wizards of Waverly Place” or the Jonas Brothers (22 million SayNow calls from fans and counting) record new messages.
A newly introduced “live” function allows celebrities to hold what are essentially giant one-way conference calls, chattering away as thousands of fans listen on mute.
Artists can also return calls for one-on-one conversations that are broadcast to the group, something the pop singer Jesse McCartney recently did. “When I come down to Texas, I expect you in the front row,” he recently told a weeping Catherine from Fort Worth. Her response: “I…