The Blyk Partnership Blueprint
Some interesting news today in the Financial Times regarding Blyk’s 1st ever partnership deal with Vodafone Netherlands.
This morning I had a chat with Antti (Co-Founder of Blyk) and got the low-down, but we should maybe start with why the MVNO model was launched in the first place.
From being there myself, the MVNO was launched solely because of the need of running the end-to-end process linking brands with people. Over time there was constant improvement of processes and tools which all connected to creating a true experience for Blyk members and creating the world’s first network as a media.
The next step was to address the MVNO model which manifested itself as an ultimately scalable partnership approach (unlike the singular MVNO methodology).
Antti tells me that the Blyk partnership in the Netherlands with Vodafone is the 1st view of the new model.
This is, without at doubt, the blueprint of their partnership strategy: Blyk brand, Blyk user experience, Blyk approach, Blyk audience management and of course, Blyk advertising sales.
Their blueprint uses existing infrastructure, unlike an MVNO, and offers the ability for Voda (and future partners) to truly be a media. As Antti puts it, the Blyk media model brings engagement, value and relevance. It matches the ambition of the Telco with the media capability of Blyk. It is apparent that both companies strategies are aligned.
The 7th Mass Media reported by Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore, can only come alive if the above components are in place.
Antti stated to me, and I agree, that with an internet-only approach largely using display, operators will continue down the path of utility companies – not media companies.
From experience, advertisers are undoubtedly excited as they see the model scaling and Antti reports that operators seem excited by the opportunity of becoming media companies. Interactive user engagement is surely the way forward.
As Antti said at the end of our conversation: “…but above all this, the real winners are the people/consumers/users who will have increasingly valuable experiences”.
For sure.
