Etisalat Nigeria, the fastest growing and most innovative mobile service provider in Nigeria, has launched a permission and preference based mobile advertising service, in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent.

Etisalat Nigeria is to deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s Optism, the software-based mobile marketing solution which allows subscribers to share their interests and preferences with their mobile operator and ‘opt-in’ to receive personalized, relevant advertising and special offers on their mobile phones from their favorite brands.

On behalf of Etisalat Nigeria, Alcatel-Lucent has created a local ecosystem made up of key players in the advertising value chain (including advertisers, brands and media agencies), while positioning Etisalat Nigeria as the enabler of interactive dialogues with a large group of mobile phone users with very detailed consumer profiles. Because Optism is afully hosted, full-service solution, it provides a fast, efficient go-to-market with a low cost of entry.

During a limited initial launch in the beginning of 2012, more than 800,000 subscribers opted in to participate in the service. Etisalat Nigeria has seen very impressive results from all of the Optism-supported campaigns that have run to date. What is noticeable, is not just the high degree of engagement and interaction that the audience has with the promotional messages but also that the campaigns have all successfully driven high levels of quantifiable actions - levels way in excess of those seen via other digital channels.

Chief Commercial Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Wael Ammar said “Optism is enabling us to achieve a number of exciting and important objectives. First, we are bringing the power of permission-based mobile advertising to the Nigerian market with our EasyAdz service. This simply means that we will provide customers with advertising content relevant to their specific locations and choices. We are also providing a large and highly profiled audience base for brands and advertisers as well as creating an avenue to connect with our most important asset – our growing base of over thirteen million subscribers.”

Amr El-Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent's business in the Middle East & Africa said, "After a successful launch of Optism in the UAE it is extremely gratifying to have another member of the group choose our solution for permission-based mobile marketing. We see this as a solid endorsement of the way we are meeting expectations.”