about.blyk.com

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

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.

media.blyk.co.uk just launched in the UK. It’s a site dedicated to marketers, and their agencies, who are interested in engaging with the 16-24 year old audience through the Blyk channel. It’s also a useful resource for those who simply want to learn more about Blyk.

The site highlights such topics as the benefits of adding Blyk to your media mix, the Blyk product offering, tips for getting the most out of Blyk media, as well as our current case studies. You can also contact the Blyk team to book a campaign.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Iain Graham from Mobile News and our conversation was featured on this week’s Mobile News podcast. We took a deep dive into the Blyk offering, opportunities for advertisers to engage with 16-24 year olds, future targets and how our member to member recruitment has been key to our growth.

In addition to the Blyk feature, Iain also covered some key issues for mobile Internet and search in general which are very interesting. Enjoy! http://www.thefonecast.com/Default.aspx?item=162

Today Blyk is setting the record straight – we have officially reached our 100,000 member target six months in advance of plan. This is a significant milestone for Blyk and demonstrates that both young people and advertisers have embraced the Blyk concept.

Put simply, young people like Blyk because it makes phone bills and contracts a thing of the past and connects them with relevant brands they like. As a result, advertisers and media buyers are able to directly communicate with 16-24 year olds in an interactive and cost-effective way.

In the six months we’ve been up and running, we have accumulated deep knowledge about our member base. Our high response rates (averaging 29 percent) show that this audience wants to engage with brands and issues that resonate with them. No other youth media channel offers this type of dialogue and relevancy for young people.

On a personal note, the last six months at Blyk have been an incredibly rewarding experience – the people, the momentum and energy create a dynamic environment and I am proud to be a part of this special place.

Press release 24 April 2008

You will find Blyk speaking at the following venues.

Monday, February 11th

At 2:30pm, Blyk’s CEO and co-founder, Pekka Ala-Pietilä will be delivering a keynote speech at the Mobile Monday Peer Awards Event and Ceremonies held at the Espacio Movistar.

At 4:30pm, you will find Pekka Ala-Pietilä speaking at the CMO Forum, a GSMA event in partnership with OgilvyOne Worldwide. This event will bring together the leaders of the mobile marketing/advertising industry and it focuses on the challenges of increasing the use of the mobile channel for advertising and marketing purposes. The location is Hall 5 of the Fira de Barcelona.
Topics for the event include:

• The role of mobile marketing in the advertising space
• How to make mobile advertising and marketing grow
• Relationship marketing and the mobile space
• Business models and market opportunities

On Tuesday, February 12th

At 4:15pm, Timo Ahopelto, Head of Strategy and Business Development will be presenting ‘Blyk’ at the Mobile Innovation Marketplace. Blyk has been recognised as one of the ‘most innovative’ in the category of Consumer Application or Service.

Finally, I came across an article on Friday related to ‘What’s hot at Mobile World Congress 2008.’ Nice Blyk mention.

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!

Many people have asked us about the animations that are making the rounds on the Internet (like this one: Blyk by Elin Svensson) and about the design of the Blyk brand identity.

When we started designing the Blyk brand we took a deliberately “open code” approach. I’ve written a post on what we’re doing and why. This coincides with the launch of Shift6.net the blog of the new Blyk open brand lab. Fellow bloggers include danah boyd, Inma Martinez and Alison Black.

Contagious Magazine features Blyk in the “Birth of a Brand” section of their last issues. They also covered the Blyk launch briefly in this Contagious News Article.

Some selected articles on the Blyk launch:

Business week: Free Mobile Services Set to Take Off: Blyk’s British launch of its ad-sponsored cell-phone service targeted at teens and young adults has traditional mobile operators nervous

Reuters/CNBC: Ad-Funded Mobile Operator Opens in Britain

MobiAdNews: Designing Blyk - The First Ad-Funded Mobile Operator