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Blyk Oranges

by: admin Monday, March 26th, 2007

Rating: squeeze me, Blyk’s been tangoed

Blyk has signed up with the following early adopter brands for its new free calls MVNO which is set to hit the UK in the Summer. The brands include: Buena Vista (Disney), Coca Cola, iplay, L’Oreal Paris and yell.com.

Coca Cola has had its feet in mobile for nearly five years so its appearance in Blyk is hardly a surprise. Iplay, the mobile games provider is also a no brainer. The commotion surrounding mobile gaming advertising and the means of doing this is rife at the moment and several companies are offering ad-triggered gaming (Amobee) or free mobile gaming (Hovr) to ensure an early lead in the free content gaming market.

Yell.com is a surprise. Yell has just launched its first mobile services and they are only average. Nothing out of the ordinary and it is an unlikely player in the hullabaloo surrounding Blyk. But this does not mean it can’t offer something to the party. Directory enquiries or local mobile search via SMS advertising could be on the agenda. Or even a free click to call services from the directory player.

The nicest surprise is the introduction of L’Oreal Paris. Why? Well, because it means that service innovation can occur. Basically, you might start seeing offers such as buy a lipstick and get free calls from Blyk or send in three empty eye shadows for a Blyk SIM.

No, I am not joking. This brings interaction to the mobile MVNO and interaction is what makes consumers interested and at the end of the day stick. Everyone loves a freebie and the youth market is determined enough to follow promotions avidly.

According to Blyk’s Antii Orhling there are several other mobile advertisers involved. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be because there is no way that Blyk can sustain a completely free business model.
BKI Media predicts service innovation and a new form of mobile advertising MVNO with Blyk. Not a pure SugaMama (Virgin Mobile) but something of a cross between what a Yahoo! would offer if it had an MVNO and Amp’d mobile. Amp’d might only have 120,000 subscribers but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t setting and changing the mobile agenda in terms of innovation and cutting edge services. Blyk would take the roll as Yahoo! and become an aggregator of content but primarily focus on the customer care machine. The marketing costs would be cut dramatically because it would be in the interest of these other brands to promote the mobile services.