Blyk resurrects consumer offering

Blyk, the one time ad-funded MVNO which repositioned itself as an advertising services provider, has brought its consumer offering back from the dead and is taking a crack at the Netherlands market with Vodafone as a partner.

On Wednesday, the Finnish company announced the commercial launch of its direct to consumer and mobile ad service provider offerings in the Netherlands.

The direct to consumer offering includes 1,000 free text messages and 1,000 free Blyk-to-Blyk minutes per month, in return for viewing a number of MMS-based adverts per day. The company is targeting the 16 – 29 year old demographic and requires that subscribing members are profiled. Users will also need a SIM-lock free, MMS capable mobile phone.

Blyk’s launch advertiser partners for the Netherlands include Nike, Beachmasters, Universal Pictures, McDonald’s, Pearle and Electronic Arts.

But the company is covering itself by introducing the service provisioning model as well. In the summer of 2009, Blyk wound down its virtual network operation in the UK and repositioned itself as a provider of managed services, signing an exclusive deal with Orange in the UK, the carrier that hosted its MVNO.

While the firm’s advertising response rates remained high, at 25 per cent, it lacked the kind of reach that advertisers are used to buying through more established media. And the volume of free usage made available to end users through advertising subsidies was simply insufficient. So no doubt the company’s Dutch initiative will be watched closely.

Eric Kip, MD for Blyk Netherlands, said: “Our relationship will include a co-development of the consumer proposition for the Netherlands and audience management. Blyk will have responsibility for the brand, advertising sales and technology.

“The Netherlands has the third highest advertising spend per capita in Europe and is a hub for many global companies and ad agencies, so is an obvious territory for Blyk’s expansion. The advertising market, whilst both creative and dynamic, is also cluttered so we believe youth brands will welcome a highly engaging communication channel like Blyk.”

Can Blyk make its consumer offering work in the Netherlands?

Total Voters: 64

http://www.telecoms.com/12990/blyk-repositions-as-managed-service-provider/