GSMA Mobile Asia Congress 2007 in Macau this week was an interesting event. Despite our initial European focus, most of people knew Blyk: this really is a global industry!
I was presenting Blyk in the mobile advertising session on November 14th, followed by a lively panel discussion on operator strategies, consumer perceptions, industry ecosystems and analogies (–or in my opinion, no real analogies) between effective mobile and Internet advertising models and formats. To sum up, for operators mobile advertising is a way to increase ARPU, while there are no other Blyk-like media and operator propositions than Blyk in the market.
Differences between maturing Europe and emerging Asia are obvious. There are a lot of people in Asia without mobile phones, many mobile services still to be introduced, fast-growing GDP and a large young population keen on technology and entertainment, ready to secure the growth in both operator ARPU and subscriber base for the years come. And if Europe is a scattered map of nationalities, so is Asia, where socioeconomic differences within one country are beyond any European imagination, not to even mention differences between countries themselves.
So, against this, I got asked a lot how does this all fit into what Blyk is doing in Europe? The simple answer goes: a Blyk-like media would do very well in Asia.
Why?
First, the need to lower the phone bill is universal among young people. No matter where you go, young people are students or early in their careers, needing to save money for both necessity and fun. They also are most eager to adopt new ideas. This is exactly what Blyk does by being the first to bring the ad-funded media model into mobile, to give free text and voice every month. And why text and voice, not mobile content? Simply because text and voice are what young people use in mobile today (– in addition to alarm clock as our extensive research covering more than 3,000 16-24 year olds across European countries shows), no matter if you are in Europe, Asia or anywhere in the world.
Second, Blyk links young people up with brands they like. Access to brand messages is social capital among young people. This is, in fact, even more so among the larger audiences of the Asian youth compared to Europe, where brands have been accessible to everyone for decades. Blyk is the invite to the network of messages and information from respected brands that want to hear and listen to what you think.
Third, advertising in traditional media is losing its power exactly like in Europe. Street corners are packed with billboards, and television programs are testing the limits of advertising per hour. A mobile media where themes, frequency, timing and pace of advertising are designed to deliver the best impact for brands and user experience for consumers does play very well in this environment.
The next question against this is, of course, that when will we see Blyk in Asia? Well… this really is a global industry!
