Zain Al Urdun, a subsidiary of the leading mobile phone services provider in the Middle East and Africa, Zain, has launched, in cooperation with the leading Arab software and wireless solutions, Javna, Mobile Advertising service (MobiAd).
The first of its kind in the world, MobiAd meets the growing market needs for out-of-the-box advertising ideas that ensure the success of advertising campaigns as well as ensure the client satisfaction by offering both tangible and intangible rewards to customers who elect to receive the ads on their cell phones in a quick and flexible way that meets the needs of customers who are constantly on the go..
Commenting on the development, Zain's Senior Data Service Manager Ziad Al-Masri said: "Unlike conventional advertising, which is typically tainted with chaos and arbitrariness and lacks the direct target of niche markets,, advertising companies will have an excellent medium to interact with the intended audience in an effective manner at any time. After the successful completion of phase one, customers of Zain Al Urdun's – will have the opportunity to voluntarily subscribe to any of the marketing channels available on MobiAd. Each customer will select the channels that best fit their interests such as sports, marketing, technology or electronic products. In return, subscribers will receive one or more of an array of rewards like free minutes for local or international calls, free SMS messages and gifts from the advertisers, in addition to a periodical drawing for prizes for ads recipients ".
For his part, Javna's CEO, Mansour Mansour, said that the comprehensive MobiAd services "will revolutionize the commercial advertising sector. It will also help wireless communications providers to play a larger role in the advertising industry and add a new revenue stream that they share with their subscribers."
Mansour expected the mobile advertising platform to have a significant share of the Arab ad market, estimated at $7 billion annually, specially since the new technology is based on interactive solutions through multiple delivery channels starting from SMS, MMS, rings, and images, to flash interfaces that appear when a call is received or made by the user. These marketing tools can be programmed to appear regularly on set dates and times, he said.
MobiAd platform also allows advertisers to define the age range of the targeted segment, sex and location, among other attributes that can optimize the advertising campaign and make it more effective. It also maximizes the possibility of achieving the campaign goals and provides detailed reports to evaluate the campaign at its various phases.
Mansour pointed out the technical challenges that Javna had to address while developing MobiAd, as the company's experts were tasked with building an integrated, flexible and user-friendly advertising system, taking into consideration that there were many stakeholders involved with different roles and responsibilities.
Meanwhile, Javna's Business Development Director Sammy Tuffaha noted that the official launch of Javna's MobiAd platform took place during the March 4-9 Cebit expo in Hannover, Germany.
Tuffaha said: "MobiAd is a newly born technology was designed to target wireless communications companies as well as media and advertising agencies.
He added: "Javna's products are extremely innovative and ad significant value, while its wireless solutions are reliable and comprehensive, a matter which has made us partners of major wireless communications companies in the Arab region, while foreign companies see our membership in Symbian Platinum Partner List as an indication of the high quality of Javna's programs and solutions."
About Zain in Jordan:
Zain in Jordan (formerly known as Fastlink), founded in 1995, was the first operator to introduce mobile phone services into Jordan. In just a few years, the company earned its reputation as the most progressive telecom operator in the region in terms of competitiveness and readiness to adopt new technologies and deploy cutting-edge services. Since its inception, Zain in Jordan has tallied subscriber growth at an exponential rate, with the number of users currently exceeding 2 million subscribers. Through more than 1,700 cell sites, Zaincovers the entire populated area of the Kingdom. In January 2003, the Zain Group (formerly known as the Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC)) acquired Zain in Jordan in what was considered the largest single acquisition in the Middle East area, and the largest private sector investment in Jordan.
About Zain:
Zain is the new brand name for MTC, the leading mobile telecommunications provider in the Middle East and Africa. The company operates under the Zain brand in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Sudan. In Iraq it is currently known as mtc-atheer, in Lebanon as mtc-touch and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Zain plans to commence operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in early 2008.
In January 2007, the Group launched the ACE (Acceleration, Consolidation, Expansion) strategy to realize its 3x3x3 vision of becoming a top-ten global mobile operator by 2011. Zain is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC and is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Stock ticker: ZAIN). The company’s market capitalisation at 1st September, 2007 exceeded US$ 30 billion.
Javna
Established in 2001, Javna is a privately held company that has achieved continued growth and success since its inception five years ago. Javna is amongst the leading Jordanian companies specialized in software solutions and wireless applications. We offer messaging & wireless applications products, solutions and services to mobile operators, enterprises, and government agencies in the Middle East.
Relying on its highly-competent technical and managerial teams, Javna aspires to become a leading global provider of fully serviced, hosted, integrated, interactive network that provides and supports mobile business applications, global mobile interactive messaging, mobile entertainment, mobile advertising, mobile content delivery and mobile data collection for mobile operators, major corporations, major media and entertainment brands and related industries.
