Time to catch up with our Blykwatcher Ricky Chotai. He’s starting to get a little bored of Blyk when nothing is happening, but will there be light at the end of the tunnel? Read on to find out…
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Firstly apologies another quite short post, again been very busy and to be honest nothing much is going on with BLYK.
Monday 25th February 2008
No brand messages today.
Tuesday 26h February 2008
An information SMS from BLYK informing if they send me a MMS then I should reply by SMS. Something I suggested on the forums as soon as BLYK was set up. It is important and some people may be easily mistaken to reply by MMS (something I did)
Wednesday 27th February 2008
No brand messages.
Thursday 28st February 2008
An information text telling me the BLYK portal is free to browse. This is great; however one big problem there is nothing of use on it except your balance. I am not sure what I am wanting put something to keep me entertained, facebook or even MSN messenger. Something I will happily receive more brand messages in return for.
I also received a question on what I though were the coolest brands. I replied back saying BLYK (just to be a geek)! Maybe they will be give more some more free minutes for being praising of them!
Friday 29th February 2008
I got an information SMS from BLYK telling me BLYK will try to get cool brands on board. Quite clearly the exercise was they were struggling for ideas of brands so they though hey let’s text our members and see what they think. Do you know what an amazing idea, however it should not be clear to me as customer what they were doing. What I would have done if I was the CEO of BLYK was reply to all members saying Pepsi was number 1 in the list and Pizza Hut was number 2, not tell them that I was looking for new brands because I was struggling with advertisers (which in my opinion BLYK is)!
Saturday 1st of March 2008
No messages at all today!
Sunday 2nd March 2008
No Brand messages.
I am getting bored with BLYK to be honest, when it first started out I was getting a few brand messages a day and lots of user interaction. Currently there is little of that going on, if I was BLYK and had no advertisers I would be learning my customer as well as I could! I would be at least be sending profiling texts? Eg Do you like mobile phones? I would reply Yes! BLYK then tells me the latest handsets it is getting in.
Now you are reading this and thinking this kid is asking for SPAM texts? Nope when I signed up to BLYK I agreed to receive X amount of Brand messages a day, so if they sent me a few a day, I honestly don’t mind. If I have time or I believe it is relevant to me I would reply. As a student SMSing is not a chore for me, it is part of my daily life.
Whilst I am on suggestion mode I have been researching some more about ad funded networks, especially as BLYK is looking to expand into the European Market. BLYK is not the only one (now BLYK don’t worry I am not setting up a rival) but over in the US they have Mosh Mobile
Now let’s have a look the first thing a status page of the network. Well this would have been great for BLYK a few weeks ago when their network was down.
They have two plans (wow now if BLYK incorporated that more customers I am sure will join), the people who are low users can have less free stuff and those willing to have more adverts they get more. Makes sense to me! If you see their plans they offer free myspace, facebook and twitter! Well BLYK come on, catch up! It’s what us kids want.
Now if BLYK take the T-Mobile’s FLEXT approach and allocate a certain amount each month it is sure to be success, FLEXT was and still is the killer tariff to have as a student. You are not fixed which is the great thing! Now add data, voice, SMS, MMS combination and BLYK would be a HUGE success. Especially if you have different plans for different about of brand messages received.
So if you have loads of money take my ideas and beat BLYK at its own game, or BLYK if you want to hire me, you can for a small fee of course ;)!
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Monday 3rd March 2008
A SMS from Pied Piper records letting me know a new band called Koop (www.myspace.com/koopa) with a link their myspace. I actually went online had a quick listen. Not really my thing though.
Tuesday 4th March
A SMS from t3 (http://www.t3.com/) the gadget website, asking what I thought was the best budget DVD player. I replied with one of the options and I was sent a MMS review! Pretty Cool!
Wednesday 5th March
I received a SMS asking if I rated Cesc Fabregas, knowing nothing about football (odd I know) I replied yes and then I got a reply back saying I should watch the game about Wigan Athletic on Sunday on Sky Sports!
Thursday 6th March
REFILL Day! Yay! This time no 5am SMS , but a 9am SMS instead and email as well. Getting better BLYK maybe a bit later next month! Lol 9am is too early to wake up on a Thursday!
I got a MMS advert from a band called Operators Please (www.myspace.com/operatorplease), the coolest thing was they sent an mp3 Clip. Wasn’t my sort of music but a cool idea!
I must say BLYK is getting better and better in the types of ad’s it is sending.
Friday 7th March
Another SMS advert from T3, asking what I thought was the best gadget, I replied the Wii (it’s amazing J). However they sent me an MMS back telling me the winner was the IPod touch and another mini review.
Saturday 8th March
A MMS advert from m3, the mobile social network and they sent me a link to an ad online however; it said was that if I clicked continue I would be charge. A bit rubbish to be honest, I thought I would have a least got a mini preview.
Sunday 9th March
Nothing
Monday 10th March
Nothing
Tuesday 12th March
Just a reminder SMS from BLYK telling me how I can check my remaining free balance either by SMS or by browsing the BLYK portal (for free).
Wednesday 13th March
A MMS advert from Future publishing asking which console I preferred, I replied with the Wii. I received a reply offering 3 issues if the official Nintendo magazine for just £3.
Thursday 14th March
Nothing
Friday 15th March
Nothing!
Two weeks combined into one Blog, this was simply due to having loads of deadlines this week. However I have now completed them and I am on vacation for 3 weeks from university.
This is normally the part of the blog where I start ranting and raving, however this week I have nothing to say apart from the adverts are really applicable to me and they are much more interesting these days. The other thing is that BLYK is a saviour as I have nearly used up all my FLEXT allowance, so it is a easy way to ensure I do not go over my allowance and start to get billed.(not a good thing for a student :D)
The final thing is a quick update about twitter and BLYK, I now have been receiving updates (mainly from SMS text news) on my BLYK number and its working really well. I would link it to my main number (T-Mobile) but I think having Google calendar SMS updates (check them out they are really cool) and twitter and all my normal SMS conversations all on one number is just too many SMS’s on one number (LOL)!
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Hi Ricky,
Good post.. I personally think a bi-monthly review is perfect, as it gives a good snapshot in one fell swoop.
I’m interested in the aspect of having two numbers… Presumably that means you carry about two phones? Do you give out both numbers to all contacts? I’ve had the same number for 10 years (got it when I was at Uni), and I’ll likely never change it, do students these days have affinity to their number, or is it that with info sharing being so good these days that numbers are pretty much expendable? This would be fascinating info…. sorry for the bombardment of questions!
Great post Ricky. Informative and insightful. Interesting suggestions too.. I’m pretty sure there are some Blyk folk reading this with interest..
In which case it’d be great if someone there had something to add. Just an opinion etc..
Blyk are setting out to do something that’s never been done before and I find the whole proposition SO interesting. There must be so much raw data to play with per subscriber..
What struck me about some of the ads they sent you, is why they didn’t offer you click throughs to any mobile websites (or maybe they did?).
T3 in particular. Having used their m.website in the past it just makes sense..
I know you’re diluting the call to action (text back AND click through) but still, it mixes it up a bit and makes it more compelling for the end user… Food for thought I guess.
Maybe a question for you Ricky?
Have Blyk offered you any mobile websites and if they did would you click through?
You have to pay data charges, James…
@Ewan – OK, noted.
But that doesn’t stop Blyk offering its partner’s mobile websites as part of the in-bundle (free) Blyk portal.
If I’m getting an ad for T3 from Blyk, why not partner with T3 fully and offer the full (mobile web) experience?
Engage the user further, note usage habits and then tease more info out from the page views…
James Whatley’s last blog post..Reminder: Mobile Geeks of London III
Firstly sorry for not replying sooner I have not been near the internet.
Yes most of the time I do carry about two phones. In regards to the numbers, I only give out my main T-Mobile number to people, unless if i dislike them.
I am also put my BLYK number on my facebook, in case I get to many marketing calls. It is also a great way of screening.
I used to have affinity to my old number, before i got a contract however I used to get to many annoying calls on it.
So in answer to your question I still think their is an affinity to numbers.
James I would also think it would be great that BLYK are reading and maybe even looking into some of the suggestions.
BLYK do not offer me any external websites, if they did I would gladly browse if they were free, most students have minutes when they are on a bus or train or just bored in a lecture! 🙂
The data side of things is what now need to look at! 🙂