Blog

Blyk was in great company at Ad:Tech – Mark Cridge (CEO, Glue London), George Bryant (Founding Partner, The Brooklyn Brothers) and Anthony Lukom (MD, MySpace UK) – at a panel moderated by Alistair Duncan (CEO, MRM Worldwide) entitled ‘Can brands be friends?’

The panel touched on the many challenges for brands wanting to be ‘friends’ with their target audience. Our conclusion? Brands must embrace the power of social media and understand how it can engage them into a direct dialogue and build a long-term relationships (or friendships) – ‘earned media’ as Mark put it.

Furthermore, as Anthony pointed out, social media can be used in multiple ways. It’s not just about above the line; it’s about selling products, engagement, long-term relationships, seeding strategies, customer insight and research.

We’ve seen the power of advocacy driven media at Blyk. Our high net advocacy score coupled with the fact that more than half of our members heard about Blyk through a friend (as a result, we’re calling our members ‘The Recommenders’), validates mobile marketing to young people and illustrates the power of advocacy driven media.

‘It’s the new emerging landscape’ as Alistair said – a new landscape where brands create a relationship over time which achieves much more than just a campaign.

The thorny issue of measurement and price came up; however, there was universal agreement in the power of this media versus traditional forms despite the currently hard-to-define ROI. But for Blyk, it’s cost per engagement that matters and that’s worth a lot more. After all, traditional forms of media are mostly about one hit. Social media is about developing a relationship through an ongoing conversation. And, as Mark rightly reminded us, it’s important to keep that dialogue going and develop it over time. That’s what we’ve learned at Blyk and that’s why most brands come back for more.

And another important note, Ad:Tech marked our first birthday! We are through 200k members, we boast more than 1,000 campaigns and our response rates are amazingly high. But it’s not about the numbers, and it’s probably not even about whether brands can be friends… it’s all about the media environment your brand is in – the place where relationships can be built.

By Timo Ahopelto

“The Blyk concept works,” said Emeka Obiodu, senior analyst from Ovum, yesterday at Blyk’s second analyst roundtable where more than 30 media, telecoms and advertising analysts and experts attended.

Throughout the day we shared, discussed and debated some of Blyk’s recent developments including:

• Blyk marks its first year in the UK with 200,000 members, doubling the amount forecasted after 12 months in operation.

• Blyk connects brands with “The Recommenders” – young people who are first to try, talk and share new things, and then pass them on to their friends.

• Blyk members love the Blyk concept and are building Blyk through word-of-mouth. Overall, 6 out of 10 have joined because of a friend’s recommendation.

• As researched by Millward Brown, the “net advocacy score” – defined as those who would recommend the service minus those who would not – is the highest among most UK mobile networks (on par with 02) and just behind the likes of Facebook and Youtube. For us at Blyk, this is the most important metric because it shows that Blyk creates unique value to young people’s lives.

• Blyk media works for a broad range of communications needs including awareness (example: EFD Semi Pro), engagement (example: Living TV), sales (example: Lucozade) and insight (example: Brylcreem).

• Blyk media is effective: for example, Blyk spurred 35 percent of special offer redemptions with only a one percent investment for Lucozade.

• Blyk members are responsive. Response rates to advertising are maintained high across industries, a good example is the 64 percent response rate for the Penguin Books campaign to promote ‘Slam.’

And lastly, Blyk and attending analysts yesterday discussed a major question on the industry’s mind: when will mobile advertising take off? In our view, the industry will need to shift its focus from mobile and technology to media solutions that meet brands’ communications goals while creating real value for the consumer.