Blyk blitzes mobile advertising

On 24th September 2007 when Blyk launched its advertising-based mobile service in the UK, it had about 40 advertisers signed up, yet not a single subscriber. The faith that big-name brands, such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, L’Oreal and McDonalds, are putting in the fledgling venture bears testament to Blyk’s 19 months of exhaustive pre-launch research to prove the potential of mobile advertising.

Four months on, the early optimism seems justified with the company reporting that it is on track to win 100,000 UK subscribers within one year, making it a significant youth media in the UK in the eyes of advertisers. Blyk targets 16-24 year olds with free SMS and voice minutes funded by message-based interactive advertisements. UK subscribers, or members as Blyk calls them, get 217 free text messages and 43 minutes of voice free per month. Blyk plans to go pan-European during 2008, potentially reaching more than 40 million young consumers.

Talking to Timo Ahopelto, Head of Strategy and Business Development at Blyk, a message he consistently highlights is the need for simplicity. “Key to our success is to keep the model as simple as possible while creating effective media for advertisers and superior user experience for young consumers. We really focus on advertising formats that are easy to plan, book and create for advertisers. Also for consumers, Blyk is simple. There is one free offer package that is very significant in its monthly amount. We don’t offer any services that are not part of what young consumers use today. We build on existing user behavior.”

High response rates

Typically, interaction between member and advertiser starts with a simple SMS message to which the user responds. This is then usually followed by an MMS which injects color into the exchange.

“The advertising model builds on the familiar mobile experience, young consumers exchange messages with their friends daily. Most advertisers use Blyk to help build their brand. They think of us as a complementary media that sits alongside their more traditional advertising channels of TV and radio,” explains Ahopelto. “They get excellent response rates of between 12% and 43%. This is much better than other advertising, for example direct mail which has about 1% response, banner adverts at less than 1%, and TV which you can’t even measure. Advertisers use Blyk media to build relationships with customers.”

With handsets being highly personal, a criticism sometimes levelled at mobile advertising is its possible intrusiveness. Blyk avoids the risk by ensuring that all advertising is relevant to the individual member and by limiting advertising messages to six per day. Furthermore, the user can set what time of the day they want to start receiving messages.

Mobile service providers are well placed

Ahopelto believes that, in general, mobile service providers are in the strongest position to deploy effective mobile advertising because they hold the customer relationship and have the relevant data available. However, he points out that they will probably need to work with a partner: “You need to build a media brand that consumers and advertising agencies can buy into. Blyk is exactly this, and as such a very attractive partner for an operator. It is difficult for an operator to build a media brand that may also risk its own brand and existing subscriber base.”

Ahopelto reports that Blyk is well down the line in negotiations with many other mobile service providers to launch in other countries, even outside Europe. “We started in the UK because it is the most advanced advertising market and has the most advanced mobile market in Europe. But the same model will work everywhere because it addresses the basic needs of our target group of 16-24 year olds – they want to talk, send messages, are brand aware and are cost conscious. These basic needs apply in every country,” Ahopelto concludes.