Turning feature phones into smart phones

JJ Botha, CEO of Blue Label One trading as the Mobile Services Company (MSC), says, “We believe that mibli will not only enable consumers to start living fuller, richer, faster, more convenient lives but also that marketing campaigns will start living through the creation of value-add branded apps and high impact marketing campaigns.”

mibli will initially target young South African consumers, who will now be able to install mibli free on their cellphones through one single download. It will enable their cellphones to transcend their current functionality and open up a range of mobile experiences through apps that are fast, convenient, entertaining and easy to use.

They will now be able to do many more things via their handset, such as buying and transferring airtime, paying bills, playing games or just staying connected with friends and family - mobile applications traditionally only possible on smart phones.

Marketing opportunities

mibli now allows marketers to run campaigns across a range of feature phones and reach an even greater number of the reported 40 million South African cellphone users. It incorporates low-cost marketing tools that can effectively target niche markets, through its advertising engines, billing platforms, content delivery, location-based intelligence, CRM tools and secure store value environments.

Advertisers can now choose from a range of options, which include banner advertising, interactive full screen mobisites and interactive messaging. They can monitor the response from consumers through its reporting and tracking system and measurable ROI.

In South Africa, the benefits of using mobile technology and interactivity have been reflected through the efforts of mainstream brands over recent months. Internationally a great example is Nike, which has made extensive use of mobile marketing to work with traditional media to achieve its brand objectives.

Nike recently ran a photo ID campaign in which consumers were invited to use their mobile phone to take a picture of anything that appealed to them and send the photo to a dedicated number. Consumers then received a hyperlink which took them to a visual of a Nike shoe, which the consumer could completely customise using the colours extracted from the image. Consumers could then download images of the shoe to save as wallpaper or had the option to purchase the shoes online. Another feature of the campaign was that it worked on the majority of handset makes and models.

Developers' potential growth

The launch of mibli is expected to spark a wave of activity, as entrepreneurs will be invited to develop their own apps for the platform. It is estimated that there are currently over one million developers in SA alone and an estimated 3 billion feature phones in use worldwide.

A new software eco-system enables any type of Java-enabled mobile handsets to run and it said to be is first-to-market in offering mobile apps on feature phones, which have limited memory, and processing capabilities.

MSC has developed a number of revenue channels for mibli; these include unique targeted advertising, premium services and e-products, airtime sales, partner placement and white-labelled services.

For more, go to www.mibli.com.