about.blyk.com

By Shaun Gregory, UK CEO, Blyk

The effects of the economic downturn are widespread. Companies have either already cut their marketing budgets or have a cut planned for 2008. According to a global study by Forrester research, marketing budgets are expected to be cut by 3% on average this year. But, it’s not all gloom. This opens up a window of opportunity for smart advertisers. Why? Well, it gives them the opportunity to assess their approach.

The first step when facing marketing cuts is to initiate a shift from mass advertising to targeted advertising. Channels that once delivered mass audiences are suffering from audience fragmentation, while digital convergence is providing more integrated platforms for communication on a one-to-one level. Consumer choice now determines what messages are seen and when.

The second step is to open up a direct dialogue between the brand and the consumer via innovative marketing channels. The only personalised media channel that allows this is the mobile phone. And, since the mobile phone is an indispensable part of people’s lives, mobile advertising offers a viable and unique channel in reaching consumers in an economic downturn.

Contrary to the stigma among advertisers and marketers that push strategies used with mobile advertising are interruptive and ineffective; 71% of young people admitted that they would like to receive advertising messages on their mobile phones that were targeted to their particular interests. At Blyk, where ad formats based on the most dominant communications pattern among 16-24 year olds – messaging – we believe that push strategies, used as an initial conversation point, are an effective way of opening a dialogue between brands and consumers.

Finally, the third phase is about getting creative minds going. Why not create interesting new campaigns tailored for mobile advertising? It’s about engagement, it’s about relevance. A brand will send a text message, users respond and then the brand sends an answer back. Blyk members – who are fully authenticated upon joining Blyk - react well to this level of engagement, offering high response rates. For example, Penguin’s campaign to promote Nick Hornby’s new novel saw 7 out of 10 members engage with the publisher in dialogue.

And when ROI is even more crucial during a credit crunch, being able to achieve significantly higher response rates than other channels is critical. Blyk has run over 900 mobile advertising campaigns for brands such as EMI, Boots, Penguin, Brylcreem, L’Oreal and NatWest, with industry leading response rates.

Mobile advertising, when executed correctly, is not advertising in its traditional sense; instead it effectively provides useful and relevant information, and a personal mode of communication. When it works – and Blyk does – mobile communication helps protect and build brands by opening dialogue with consumers.

The world of mobile is all about dialogue, relevance and openness. When it is treated as such with a targeted campaign, it can help combat any budget challenge.

By Antti Öhrling

I’ve been in San Francisco the past few days giving a keynote entitled “Freeing Mobile” at the YPulse Mashup 2008 – organised by YPulse, an authority on youth media. I was privileged to share the stage with representatives from other youth brands including Walt Disney Records and MTV. Overall, it was a very interesting and lively 2-day event with around 400 participants.

There was a focus on the US (naturally), but discussions also touched on some international trends. During my talk, I was able to give a basic overview of the Blyk proposition – 16-24 year olds want free communication in exchange for relevant and interactive mobile advertising.

It was interesting for me because the audience saw Blyk as something completely new with outstanding results (e.g. response rates) and many are wondering why this hasn’t yet taken off in the US. In fact, Blyk recently hit the mainstream radar in the US with CNBC’s recent broadcast of the “Cell Phone Quid Pro Quo” which gave an in-depth look of Blyk and mobile advertising.

Some key discussion topics from YPulse include:

• Difficult to reach: Marketers are still looking for the “killer application” or entry point by which to effectively communicate and reach the youth audience. The major challenge for marketers is do identify this entry point whilst recognising that young people have become more difficult to reach due to rapidly changing, savvy media habits and wavering preferences (e.g. be it social networks or brands / products).

• Lack of understanding: Marketers have a lack of understanding when it comes to young people and are struggling to effectively reach them. Media fragmentation and rise of the digital age have been key factors contributing to this phenomenon.

• iPhone mania: iPhone mania was unbelievably strong amongst the participants at the conference. I see this currently as a very US-centric phenomenon. The capabilities and some statistics of the phone are impressive, but the lack of viewpoints – e.g. concerning limitations in the distribution, price of usage and proprietary technology – are obvious. But it is growing and will be interesting to see the progress.

• Hip-Hop music in marketing: Obviously again a more US centric issue, but there was interesting discussion about the usability of the music genre for marketing purposes along with the limitations and risks involved. There was an impressive line of experts on this panel including rapper MC Hammer.

• Europe is ahead of the curve: Europe is strong in youth related issues and it was agreed that many trends are created overseas.

My overall take? Relevancy and engagement matter to the youth audience and mobile is the perfect media for relevant and interactive communication. Incentivise young people to interact with brands directly by giving them what they want – in Blyk’s case, that’s free communication, “money-can’t-buy” offers and messages from brands they like. That’s the marketer’s point of entry (and long-term relationship) with the youth audience.

All-in-all, a very positive experience. A special thanks to the YPulse organisers for a great event!

I look forward to reading your comments.

Amsterdam/Helsinki, 30 June 2008 – Blyk, the new mobile network for 16 to 24 year olds funded by advertising, is a step closer to launch in the Netherlands. Eric Kip (44), currently Planning Director EMEA at MediaCom, will be the Managing Director of this new company.

Blyk links young people to brands they like and gives them free minutes and text messages every month - upfront and without a contract. For brands, Blyk is an innovative media channel providing direct access to 16-24 year olds who have opted-in to the service and have provided in-depth profiles on themselves so that brands can deliver them relevant communication.

From September 2008, Eric Kip will lead this company in the Netherlands. His view on this new challenge: “Blyk is a great concept for which I have a big passion. With this new communication channel companies can perfectly reach and contact a target group that is usually hard to reach. At the same time we are offering a unique mobile communication concept to young people. I am very excited to start with Blyk and introduce the company to the Dutch youth and advertisers.”

Currently, Eric Kip is Planning Director EMEA at MediaCom, where he is responsible for revenue growth and the quality of planning output of the European network. In the past he was CEO of media agency Initiative Group Netherlands, he worked as Marketing Director at Coca-Cola and held several Marketing positions at Danone and Sara Lee.

Blyk’s co-founder Pekka Ala-Pietilä about the Dutch CEO: “Eric Kip has more than 20 years of experience in marketing. He has worked with many youth brands and has an excellent network with advertisers. We are convinced that with Eric on board, Blyk will succeed in becoming the new Dutch communication channel for young people.

Blyk was launched in September 2007 in the United Kingdom, where the milestone of 100,000 members was reached in April this year. Additional details on Blyk’s launch in the Netherlands will be announced in the coming months.

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

As I mentioned in my post last week, I also had an opportunity to meet with BnetTV’s Michelle Sklar while at the FT Business of Mobile Conference. The interview has just been posted to the BnetTV website so take a look when you have some time.

I’ve just spent two days in Brussels at the FT Business of Mobile Conference where I gave a talk on mobile marketing and heard some interesting views on where the industry is heading.

Here are my key take-outs and lessons in mobile marketing:

Listening to your customers
It may seem like an obvious thing to say but having spent two days immersed in the industry the thing that struck me the most was that people are spending too much time trying to monetize existing services and not enough time listening to what customers want and then developing services which meet their needs.

Mobile Internet is accelerating fast
Geraldine Wilson, Yahoo! Europe predicted that by 2016, more users will access the internet from their mobile devices than the fixed PC. Geraldine observed that there are approximately a billion PCs and three billion mobiles and said take up will be more rapid in emerging markets, where people do not have PCs, and mobile is the only way that they can access the internet. It’s also worth having a look at Opera’s new report on how social networks are dominating mobile internet.

Mobile advertising is all about relevance and engagement
Those who continue to use ‘frequency, reach, eyeballs and CPM’ to measure mobile advertising will not succeed. People, especially the young, want dialogue and relevance.

Understanding the ‘third screen’
Stephen Pritchard, the conference Chair, urged companies to recognise mobile as a channel in its own right rather than an extension of the internet. Mobile is communication, not a content channel – TV and Radio are content channels. Free communication and access to relevant information is of the utmost important to mobile users – particularly for young adults. The key with communicating successfully via mobile is to be rich in relevance, engagement and user experience.

Mobile marketing can build brands
There is more to mobile marketing than free coupons encouraging direct response. We are finding that ad campaigns on Blyk can be used to support brand building generate market insight and strengthen consumer relationships. Marketers need to start measuring changes in ‘attitudes’ as well as ‘click-throughs’.

Penguin embraces mobile
Genevieve Shore, Global Digital Director, Penguin Group gave some great insight as to how ‘old media’ like books can thrive in a digital world and use in a highly targeted and effective way. You can read more about how Penguin worked with Blyk to promote Nick Hornby’s Slam.

Advertising is good
There’s a misconception within the industry that mobile users tolerate annoying ads in return for free calls. We’ve found the opposite to be true. Blyk shunned the typical mobile-operator model of simply adding as many subscribers as possible and concentrated on accumulating a deep knowledge of our member base. As a result, response rates average 29% and our members want to engage with brands they like and see advertising as valuable information

Make the most of the mobile medium
Build your campaign around the unique attributes of mobile: ubiquity, immediacy of response, 100% opt-in and personal engagement.

Call for common sense regulation
Sir Alistair Graham, Chairman, PhonepayPlus, took an admirable stance on regulation and called for more dialogue, transparency and championed the use of language that consumers can easily understand. I’m sure the folks at Campaign for Plain English would approve.

I look forward to comments and word of other highlights from anyone that attended the conference. I gave an interview to BnetTV who were covering the show so look out for that when it goes live on Friday 23rd May.