Out There Media providing the platform and service
Russian operator Vimpelcom has announced the launch of a mobile advertising offering to its Beeline subscribers.
The operator is building its advertising proposition around “Be the first to know”, an opt-in service that delivers ads to subscribers who provide information about themselves and agree to receive SMS and MMS carrying ads in return. The ads will carry offers, promotions, discounts etc, as well as product information.
Vimpelcom said that prior to launch the operator already had 200,000 people signed up and opted in, and also had launch brands on side, including include Perfetti Van Melle (with a focus on their brands Chupa-Chups, Smint and Sula) and BANK URALSIB.
Rival Russian operator MTS said earlier this year that it expects the Russian market for mobile advertising to grow to $100 million within three years, compared with RUB200 million ($6.69 million) last year.
Vimpelcom itself has been down the mobile advertising route before, working with Gigafone on a similar opt-in proposition from 2008 into 2009. At one point, Gigafone claimed it had 600,000 subscribers signed up for the service.
Out There Media’s Head of Communications, Ted Lelekas, said that as far as he knew Out There is now the only advertising provider for Vimpelcom, and Out There’s Russian office is now providing all the sales and business development support for Vimpelcom. The 200,000 subscribers that Vimpelcom has lined up all signed up in the past three to four days, he added.
Out There announced it would work with Vimpelcom back in February 2010.
Martin Furuseth, Chief Marketing Officer of VimpelCom, added: “We are delighted to see great interest from Beeline users to take part in our new innovative service. “We are certain that the combination of two key factors, namely the effective targeting of the customers and the delivery of relevant offers to them, will be fundamental for the success of all campaigns conducted via mobile communications channels”.