Alcatel-Lucent Optism™ extends opt-in mobile marketing to emerging markets with leading consumer brands
Paris and Barcelona, February 16, 2011 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Millicom Ghana Ltd (MIC), under the brand of Tigo, one of Ghana's leading mobile network operators, today announced a strategic partnership to introduce the first permission- and preference-based mobile advertising service in Ghana.
The innovative new service, Tigo Ads, is based on the Alcatel-Lucent Optism™ mobile marketing solution and enables Tigo’s customers to receive targeted promotions on their mobile phones. Subscribers can share information with Tigo about their preferences and receive interactive text messages containing important news, promotions, discounts and exclusive offers from their preferred brands.

During the limited initial launch, more than 40,000 subscribers opted in to Tigo Ads and took advantage of the coupons and other offers from advertisers. Advertising campaigns for local and international brands including Nestle, Nissan and Volkswagen saw response rates ranging from over 18 percent up to 45 percent. Other digital advertising media achieve on average response rates of less than 1 percent*. Tigo has now opened up its mobile advertising service to all its subscribers.
“This new service is one that we are particularly excited about. It helps our business customers reach their customers and it gives us insights into what our customers are interested in, so we can better serve that segment as well,” said Rosy Fynn, Consumer Manager Tigo Ghana.. “Ghana is a competitive market for mobile operators and we believe the best way to gain market share, is to offer these types of new services that consumers and businesses find useful. The Optism service is a true asset for all members of the mobile advertising ecosystem, because it acts as a key tool to help us to better understand and meet each customer’s needs and preferences.”
For Tigo, permission-based mobile advertising opens up a new revenue stream and enables the company to leverage its existing infrastructure in an innovative way. The opt-in process also gives Tigo a new way to understand its customer base and therefore fine-tune existing services and cross-sell additional services.
“The mobile campaign we ran with Tigo Ads brought us to a wider audience than any other form of digital advertising in Ghana,” said Haadi Bawah, Marketing Manager of Auto Parts Ltd, distributor of Nissan automobiles in Ghana. “The response rates to the Nissan Patrol campaign were extremely positive, and we gained insight into consumers’ needs that we can use to shape future campaigns.”
The Optism solution is fully managed and hosted by Alcatel-Lucent and did not require any capital investment by Tigo. Optism has created an advertising ecosystem, enabling Tigo to play a broader role in the vibrant and competitive mobile market in Ghana by developing the kinds of useful new services that can create revenue streams and help Tigo gain market share. Tigo is the first operator in the country to introduce this new service to mobile communities.
“This partnership strengthens our relationship with Millicom and confirms our ability to offer operators innovative ways to build new revenue opportunities out of existing infrastructure,” said Amr El-Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent business in the Middle East & Africa. “In Ghana, the Alcatel-Lucent Optism™ solution delivers text-based services with the potential to unlock a range of economic benefits to users of even the most basic mobile phones. We provide a key business driver that brings service providers and leading consumer brands together for personalized mobile marketing.”
Optism™ is the permission-based mobile marketing solution from Alcatel-Lucent that bridges the gap between operators and advertisers. Optism™ is a unique offering that enables mobile operators to create responsive, permission- and preference-based mobile inventory, providing advertisers with easy access to willing, targeted audiences. Building upon successes in Europe with Orange Austria, Alcatel-Lucent is now forging relationships with leading operators in strategic emerging markets, including Mobinil in Egypt, Etisalat in United Arab Emirates and this partnership with Tigo in Ghana.
*source reference to 1% of response rate: http://nicolasmoerman.com/average-click-through-rates-for-banners-and-e
For more information on the Alcatel-Lucent Optism™ solution, please click www.optism.com
About Millicom International Celullar S.A:
Millicom International Celullar S.A is a global emerging markets mobile communications operator that provides affordable, widely accessible and readily available prepaid cellular telephony services to more than 30 million customers in 13 emerging markets in Latin America and Africa where the basic telephone service is often inadequate and where economic development and rising personal income levels are creating increasing demand for communication services. Millicom's proven prepaid, mass market distribution and perceived price leadership strategy have enabled it to continue to pursue high growth while delivering operating profitability. Millicom's shares are listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol MICC and on Stockholmsbörsen under the symbol MIC. For more information please visit: http://www.millicom.com/about/about.cfm
Millicom Ghana (Tigo) Press Contacts:
Titus Tetteh Nanor
Titus.Nanor@tigo.com.gh
00233277551409
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent’s blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.
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