Etisalat, top telecom operator in the UAE, and Alcatel-Lucent, a leading global communications company, have launched the UAE’s first permission and preference-based mobile advertising services.

The opt-in mobile advertising service provides a smart and unique advertising model that will allow advertisers and brands to have an engaging dialogue with their target audience via rich SMS/MMS dialogue ads.

Moreover, it gives mobile customers access to a wide range of exclusive and relevant offers from leading brands in the UAE that is tailored to their personal interests and lifestyles, a statement said.

The service will match customer’s voluntary preferences and deliver exclusive promotions and discounts accordingly. As such customers interested in sports will get the latest on offers and promotions from sporting brands.

The mobile advertising platform from Alcatel-Lucent Optism is also a monitoring tool for customers’ behaviours against the ads and promotions that they receive in a way that detects their registered interests and their interaction levels with the received offers.

This type of intelligence, behaviour monitoring and updating will get advertisers and brands to customise their offers to best suit their targeted audience and for customers to receive the best defined promotions that fit their likings.

The new service will offer targeted ads, personalized ads, engaging ads and most of all very well defined tailored ads that will increase their sales, enhance their ROI, enable them for more intelligent campaign planning and provide them with real time reporting, according to the statement.

At the same time it will increase targeted audience satisfaction as customers will receive offers that are tightly linked to their lifestyles and tastes.

“There is a new wave of demand for deals, discounts and offers in the UAE. As part of our mobile strategy, we are constantly innovating to delight our customers,” said Matthew Willsher, chief marketing officer of Etisalat.

“The UAE’s first mobile advertising service ensures that customers who choose to receive targeted messages get better value as well as a richer mobile experience.”

Amr El-Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent business in the Middle East and Africa, said: “We are very enthusiastic about working with Etisalat to bring a more personalized and compelling experience to their customers.”

All mobile advertising with Etisalat is "opt-in" for customers, giving subscribers the freedom to choose. It ensures privacy of customer’s information and contact details through Etisalat’s ‘Personal Information Identifiers’ system.

Maha Muraish, director of Online Channel and Portal at Etisalat, added: “It’s not about spamming our customers with numerous ads; it’s about providing preference-based content. You will only receive offers from Etisalat that is relevant to you, at the time of day that suits you best and not more than five ads a week."

The service is for free and customers who register for the service do not pay for any advertising messages that they receive or respond to, the statement clarified.

From time to time, customers will receive Etisalat’s ‘housekeeping’ messages to keep updated on profile and preferences, in order to understand and send tailor-made offers as per their interests, it added. – TradeArabia News Service