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Blyk, the new mobile network for 16-24 year olds funded by advertising, announces its next wave of European expansion into Germany, Spain and Belgium in 2009, following its announcement to enter the Dutch market earlier this year. Blyk’s rapid expansion is subsequent to its UK success where members embraced the Blyk concept so quickly that its annual member targets of 100,000 were reached six months ahead of schedule, establishing it as a powerful new media for connecting advertisers with young people.

Blyk’s CEO and Co-founder, Pekka Ala-Pietilä said, “There is a great opportunity for Blyk in these markets. Our research shows that young people in Germany, Spain and Belgium are interested in the Blyk proposition because they want to interact with brands they like in exchange for free communication. Our success in the UK, illustrated by robust member adoption, has proven that Blyk is a youth media that works and we hope to replicate this success as we enter new countries. We are also working to attract local talent who share our enthusiasm and can help build Blyk into a significant youth media in other countries.”

To date, Blyk has run over 900 campaigns in the UK for brands such as Coca Cola, STA Travel, Penguin, Buena Vista, L’Oreal and music artists The Kooks and Alphabeat with an average response rate of 29 percent, an extremely high level for any media platform. For example, Penguin’s campaign to promote Nick Hornby’s new novel, saw 7 out of 10 members engage with the publisher in a dialogue.

Blyk will make further announcements related to activities in each of these countries in the near future.

In addition to Blyk’s European expansion plans, the company will continue to strengthen its services in the UK through more members and brands. By the end of the year, Blyk’s aim is to boost the number of brands using Blyk to 200 by the end of 2008. In doing this, Blyk wants to deliver on their driving idea to unite young people and advertisers to free communication.

Multimedia Content:

Co-founder
Pekka Ala-Pietilä

Co-founder
Antti Öhrling

“The Future of Advertising”
APA’s conference at BAFTA

Marko Ahtisaari
Head of Brand & Design talks about all things Blyk

Related Links:

Media Site
Blyk in the Media Mix
Case Studies
^6
Blyk Music
Blyk Team

PRESS RELEASE FROM CANNES INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING FESTIVAL

June 18, 2008

Global communications network, Leo Burnett Worldwide and Contagious magazine today challenged marketers and their agencies to put people at the heart of their work, rather than brands or the category, at their “Wildfire” seminar.

Suggesting how this year’s seminar differed from years previous, the presenters dubbed the session ‘Creativity, with a Human Touch’. Tom Bernardin, CEO and Chairman of Leo Burnett Worldwide said, “Everything that matters in the advertising business begins and ends with two things: People and Behaviour. Wildfire brands understand this better than any, and as a result thrive within today’s ‘People Era’ – an era when marketers have to be more human in their behaviour, insight and voice than ever before.”

PEOPLE CENTRIC

Fundamental to 2008’s Wildfire seminar was a new appreciation of the most important link in the chain that connects product with idea, and campaign with brand — people — as well as tips on just how to truly interact with those people.

‘This year, we wanted to showcase brands that boast what Leo Burnett calls a truly ‘Humankind’ of attitude to their audience, brands that are actually doing something to deserve a place in people’s lives. In a sense, brands that are about Acts, not just Ads,’ added Bernardin.

ADVERTISING, THAT’S NOT ADVERTISING

Paul Kemp-Robertson, Editorial Director of Contagious magazine dared the audience to let go and be proud of creating work that’s NOT advertising, ‘Because if you do, it might just be the best advertising you ever create,” he said. Continuing with this ‘Acts not Ads’ theme, the audience were advised to think in terms of producing work that’s:

# So well targeted and informative that it feels more like a dialogue or relationship.

# Such a useful service or application that it becomes effortlessly embedded into people’s daily lives.

# Content that is so entertaining that the brand stands on an equal footing with TV shows, newspapers or favourite websites.

“This is what Leo Burnett calls true Humankind territory,” concluded Kemp-Robertson.

WILDFIRE BRANDS WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS

Highlighting the key components of a people-focused Wildfire Brand, Kemp-Robertson and Burnett USA ECD, Reed Collins, treated delegates to a round-up of some of the best-practice examples currently out there. These included:

# Canon, Australia: establishing the brand’s creative credentials by providing a ‘little box of inspiration’ to get photographers out and about, snapping away

# Miles, the Nike+ widget: a cute application acting as a personal trainer and integrated RSS reader, extending the Nike+ experience for its dedicated community

# Coca-Cola, China: a fully interactive, state-of-the-art 15 m high digital Coke bottle to which user-generated content and SMS messages can be instantly uploaded and broadcast live from the bottle

# Samsung: smart placement of branded mobile phone charging stations at airports throughout the world, so travellers need never be incommunicado

# Blyk, UK: a UK mobile phone service proving wildly popular with its 16-24 year old target audience, who agree to receive promotions and marketing messages in exchange for free calls and texts

London, England
17 June 2008

Blyk, the new mobile network for 16-24 year olds funded by advertising, today announced its sponsorship of the D&AD New Blood 2008 Awards and an 18-month relationship with the D&AD 2009 Student Award programme.

Simon Waterfall, President of D&AD said: “D&AD is proud to have Blyk as a main sponsor at this year’s New Blood event. The collaboration embodies our shared value of supporting a new generation of creatives to enhance business performance now and in the future.”

Shaun Gregory, CEO Blyk UK said: “Blyk is committed to educating the industry and ensuring that any brand communications work well when they are executed through mobile. As such, we are delighted to be sponsoring the D&AD New Blood 2008 Awards and the D&AD Student Award programmes 2009.”

If you are attending D&AD New Blood 2008 Awards, Blyk would like to invite you to join the team at the Blyk stand where they will be showcasing the Blyk experience and the unique engagement they have with their members. Visitors will get the opportunity to view Blyk’s creative campaigns, learn more about Blyk’s connection with 16-24 year olds and pick up some goodies in their “chill-out” area.

WHO: Marko Ahtisaari, Blyk Brand and Design
Tom Gutteridge, Blyk UK Head of Creative

WHEN: Monday, 23rd June 2008 from 2 p.m.

WHERE: Earls Court

Blyk’s Marko Ahtisaari will also be participating in a debate entitled “Mobile advertising – A Fad or The Future?” on Tuesday 24th June 2008 at 2 p.m.

I was chairing a day at the Informa MVNO Industry Summit 2008 in Barcelona this week. The discussion focused on how operators and MVNOs can best work together.

Being Blyk – a youth media – puts us in an interesting position. Through connection to preferred brands, Blyk provides more value to youths compared traditional mobile offerings. In fact, Blyk is in a league of its own with the ad funded business model. As a result, most analysts have difficulty fitting Blyk into their MVNO positioning frameworks. Why is that? Because Blyk Media is not an MVNO, although it happens to have operator capabilities in order to serve young people.

Also, many people in the telecommunications industry see mobile advertising similar to the advertising model in Internet – the place to create a high number of impressions and eyeballs for a campaign. On the contrary, mobiles are used to interact and communicate, therefore being a place to engage and build relationships between brands and consumers. It is the most personal media for people, and thus not a natural place for broadcasting.

Another major question discussed during the summit asked “how are MVNOs doing today?” Informa’s Mark Newman shared some statistics that would suggest that MVNO’s are doing quite well: Western European MVNOs have grown subscribers between December 2006 and February 2008 from 40 million to 55 million, which is over 35% in 15 months. In the UK, Spain, Germany and France, MVNOs averaged to 30-40% of net adds (a term that mobile industry uses for new customers) every quarter in 2007.

From an industry point of view, specifically interesting is the wave of MVNOs starting from Northern Europe in early 2000, moving first towards Central Europe a few years later, and now reaching to the south and east. William Barrar from Ovum presented an interesting model. A market becomes ready for MVNOs when: mobile penetration is high; cost to acquire one new customer for operators passes a certain threshold cost; and when revenue generated by one customer is high enough and stops growing.

And what makes an MVNO successful and the relationship with operators work? This was the topic at the Crystal Ball Panel – where champagne was served – at the end of the conference. The panel included Keith Greenfield (Orange UK), Markus Freikamp (T-Mobile International), Dan Armstrong who has been involved in 22 MVNOs (Rabo Mobile), and the undersigned. The panel summarised the two days well: in order to succeed, one needs to create a special relationship between mobile service and the consumer, on top of the economically attractive offer that is the entry ticket for creating the relationship.

All in all, it was two days well spent. Thank you to Informa, all presenters and the active audience.

30 May 2008
London, England

Blyk, the new mobile network for 16-24 year olds funded by advertising, today launches its new media site as a comprehensive online information domain for advertisers and agencies – constantly updated with insights and case studies.

Go to http://media.blyk.co.uk/ for an explanation of Blyk as a youth media channel that works; insight into Blyk’s 16-24 year old member base; and how to start and maintain a Blyk campaign. Also, view tried and tested campaign results from brands including Penguin, COI, L’Oreal, Boots and Brylcreem.

Briefs can also be sent directly from this site to the Blyk team and a staff member will respond by the following working day.

In line with the media site, Blyk is offering Blyk Breakfasts for advertisers and agencies from 17th June. This will offer attendees a more detailed understanding of the highly targeted campaigns Blyk can deliver and useful insights into the 16-24 year old market.

Quotes:
Shaun Gregory, UK CEO, Blyk, said: “This site tells advertisers and agencies everything they need to know about Blyk as an effective youth media channel. Within the different sections of the site, readers can find out for themselves how to use Blyk as a stand-alone channel or complementary media within the rest of their communications mix.”

About Blyk
Blyk is the new mobile network for 16 – 24s that’s funded by advertising. Blyk links young people with brands they like and gives them free texts and minutes every month. Blyk was co-founded in 2006 by Pekka Ala-Pietilä and Antti Öhrling and has offices in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK. Blyk is now operating in the UK, with other European markets to follow. For more information visit http://media.blyk.co.uk/

Multimedia Content:
Blyk in the Media Mix
Products
Delivering the Best Results
Understanding 16-24 yr olds
Engaging Members
Profiling
Book a Campaign
Case Studies

Related Links:
Blyk Blog
^6
Press
Blyk Team

Recent Coverage:
Blyk hits target as young snap up free mobiles, Telegraph
Blyk appoints Vizeum for UK media, Mad.co.uk
Blyk hires Bennett to lead commercial effort, Brand Republic

For more information or to speak directly to a Blyk spokesperson contact:
Anna Loftin or Caryn Lobley or Suzanne Ellis at GCI: Tel: +44 (0) 207 072 4050 / +44 (0) 207 072 4223 / +44 (0) 207 072 4288 or aloftin@gciuk.com / clobley@gciuk.com / sellis@gciuk.com