Aviva, a life insurance company, has announced a partnership with Affle, provider of mobile media innovations, to enable it to reach out and interact with cellphone users through advertisements.

The agreement allows Aviva to connect with the users of the SMS2.0 service, which is powered by Affle, and provide an array of services. The insurance company informs cellphone users about retirement planning and policies. Should a cellphone subscriber like a particular Aviva product that is tagged on to an SMS, he could get connected to the insurance company’s customer care division at the click of a button. But there are no free lunches here, so the subscriber would have to pay for the call.

Affle officials said the initial response to their campaign has been encouraging, with more than 4% users choosing to click on the interactive ads.

The SMS2.0 application is an upgrade to the basic SMS application. SMS2.0 integrates text messages with content and advertising. Initially, this service is available only to Airtel users on their middle- and high-end mobile phones.