Were pleased to report that O2 has finally responded to our request for more information about the O2 More advertising service. To be fair, once the PRs got involved, it only took just over a day, but its a shame our request could not have been passed on to them when we first issued it almost a month ago.
In any event, O2 tell us that its too early to say how many people are on the database, since the opt-in process only launched yesterday. Subscribers are being invited to opt in via a marketing campaign to the O2 customer base, including emails, bill inserts and information on the O2 website. They are being incentivised by the promise of offers and deals that are relevant to their interests, and that can save them money. The network says it is targeting both Pay & Go and contract customers, but that initially, it will focus its efforts on customers that it knows are interested in existing O2 opt-in programmes, such as Priority Ticketing and Top up Surprises.
O2 says it will use a wide range of information to profile customers and segment the database for advertisers. This includes age, gender, location, phone usage (i.e. have they travelled abroad recently and to which country), and mobile Internet usage. This is then matched with the preferences the customer selects when they register and opt-in to O2 More. The customer information O2 uses to profile subscribers is made clear to them when they opt in.
The operator says it is speaking to a wide range of brands and has 50 signed up at launch including Cadbury, Adidas, Interflora and Blockbuster. People on the database, says O2, will receive no more than one message per day