Blyk is actually a user-generated media company, but with some important differences. It neither relies on users to compose their own web pages or post photographs nor does it seek to place advertisements within the ‘content’ itself. Its “media” is the free person-to-person communications it offers its subscribers.

Blyk, founded by the former president of Nokia, is targeting the key 16-to-24-year old market with 217 free texts and 43 minutes of talk time every month – if the customers agree to receive up to 6 advertising messages per day on their phone. All they have to do is complete a profiling survey and be between the mentioned ages when they sign up. 

Highly successful in the UK

Is a business with fixed costs such as running a mobile network able to support itself with advertising revenues? It probably is. In the UK the young target group embraced the Blyk concept so quickly that its annual member targets of 100,000 were reached six months ahead of schedule connecting them with brands from McDonald’s and Coca Cola to Boots and L’Oreal. After entering the Dutch market this year, Blyk’s next wave of European expansion will be Germany, Spain and Belgium in 2009.

Blyk User Experience: 90% familiar, 10 % new

In designing the service the Blyk team took two major factors into account: the current usage of mobile phones by this age group and the phone capabilities they have today. That’s why Blyk focuses its service design around one main driver: getting a message and responding to it. The ad formats, based on this form of simple dialogue, are text messages, picture messages and text ads in SMS messages, rather like a footer on an e-mail. According to one of the key members of Blyk they also tested various types of voice advertising with the result “too intrusive“ and people not being interested in waiting for an audio ad to finish before making a phone call. Banner ads, in-game ads and search advertising would be possible in the future, but not today with existing usage patterns.

It seems to work: In its first four months in the UK, Blyk ran about 500 advertising campaigns on behalf of  55 clients with an average response rate of 29%, an extremely high level for any media platform. According to their website this means a cost per response rate of ₤0.53.

Big potential benefits – targeting and personalization

From the initial online sign up process, Blyk can offer basic demographics (besides age) like location and sex. There are also plans to ask questions on particular topics, separately from any advertising. In addition, the interactions that the advertisers have with the service over time provide an opportunity to update the profile, e.g. a female member receiving a text from L’Oreal with a picture of five celebrities asking the member which one they most closely resemble. Using the member’s response L’Oreal would then recommend certain products such as lipsticks and also know for future campaigns which skin tone those users have.

Getting the right “members”

According to the co-founder and chief executive “it’s not just advertising, it’s a valuable communication and members will get a certain amount of texts and minutes free every month for taking part”. And Blyk’s acquisition strategy is interesting: They send street teams to talk directly to young customers at universities, concerts etc., work with creative brands to target particular groups and reward word-of-mouth referrals. The users termed as “members” can also recommend their friends to the service. This kind of invitation-only principle – also used by exclusive social networks like “A Small World” – guarantees maintaining the quality of the “audience” for their advertisers.

So, is Blyk a MVNO or a new type of mobile business? The Blyk team sees itself as a mobile operator with the ethos of a media company.

Pro

Using a medium with which the young target group is very familiar – messaging

Highly targeted ads possible as well as result tracking

Further technology could be introduced allowing the users to buy goods and services directly from their mobile handset

Con

Much depends on the willingness of Blyk’s subscribers to accept and respond to the advertisements – and of course to disclose personal data