Magnolia Pictures' latest horror movie, "The Signal," is seeing success in its mobile click-to-call campaign.

The campaign, from mobile agency Ringleader Digital, attracting a 15.8 percent response rate within its target demographic.

"The major goal for the campaign was to drive awareness of Magnolia Picture's 'The Signal,'" said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader, New York. "To meet that goal, we were to strategically leverage creative marketing campaign ideas and channels, aiming for something non-traditional that would grab people's attention and encourage them to help spread the word virally."

The campaign starts with a mobile banner that invites fans to click the ad. Fans are then re-routed to the movie's mobile Web site.

Created by Ringleader, the site offers people a chance to hear the signal, send the sound to a friend or read a film synopsis.

Moments after clicking on the "Listen to the Signal" option, a call comes through the user's handset.

When answered, the call plays the same noise responsible for chillingly transforming the movie's characters into mass murderers.

"Adding that viral component was key to reaching deeper into and beyond the target audience efficiently," Mr. Walczak said. "After all, we all know what our friends like, what they are likely to engage with by way of interactive campaigns.

"If I get something cool on my phone, I'm going to share it with people that I think might be interested in it either for the 'cool' factor or because they'd really want to know about the content," he said. "Grabbing an audience's attention is the first and perhaps biggest challenge for any marketing campaign to achieve."

The campaign saw a 6.7 percent click-through rate, a 15.8 percent click-to-call rate, post-click acquisition and a 13.2 percent viral response.

Also through the ad site, users can read a film synopsis or send the mesmerizing signal noise to their friends.

The independent film tells the story of innocent people transformed into sociopathic killers after listening to sounds and viewing images transmitted through their television sets.

Ringleader managed the click-to-call element, sourced ad inventory on mobile Web pages and created the WAP site. The click-to-call program launched Feb. 19 just in time for the Feb. 22 movie release.

Ringleader's device-agnostic network is the only third-party mobile ad service and is the first to specifically target ads by device functionality, the company claims.

The Signal campaign initially called for a click-to-video feature.

Ringleader opted to revise that idea to become a click-to-call feature in an effort to not exclude anyone who had a mobile device that might not be able to receive video.

Additionally, the campaign hook was transmitting the noise the Signal makes. Clicking to view a blank-screened video while the sound transmitted wasn't the most compelling approach.

"There are two key reasons for choosing mobile," Mr. Walczak said. "The core demo for the ad campaign was male, Sci-Fi fans, aged 18-34. This audience is obviously into their gadgets, so to speak. Leveraging the mobile medium was a logical fit to reach them, plus it allowed us to present an interactive campaign.

"As mentioned, the movie is about a signal transmitted through TVs that transforms people," he said. "It's a movie about technology on the edge of what we currently perceive tech to be. Mobile campaigns, mobile content -- this mirrors the same on-the-edge perception of what we imagined mobile technology can do. We're in the middle of a digital revolution, and it's all because of mobile."