So today we’ve launched Flirtwords. Basically, this is a premium service built on the back of Profile Search (which we launched in May and allows users to search all profiles by keyword for free - and will go on being free). We now allow users to buy a keyword for a day - exclusively. Effectively you “own” or “sponsor” whatever word you want - literally “be blonde for a day”. When search results are returned to anyone searching on that word, you get to be at the top of the list. Pricing is demand driven, so in theory the most popular words should rise in price over time, and less popular ones get cheaper. It’s going to be very interesting to watch.

We’ve also added quite a lot of value for the user by linking this to our ad inventory: when you buy a word you get ad banners saying “Jim IS Manchester”.

This is currently only on mobile: we’ll add it to web later in the summer when we intend to make some bigger web changes anyway so it’s more efficient to wait till then….

Quite a week. First the Meffy Award on Tuesday, and now two more awards last night. We won not only Best Use of Mobile at the New Media Age Efffectiveness Awards in London, but then went on to take the Grand Prix prize, the top award for the best of the award winners. We are stunned and delighted to be recognised like this. What’s also very very pleasing is that this is the first mobile winner of the Grand Prix. May there be many more mobile winners. There’s a great flash brochure from New Media Age here. Credit also due to Agenda21 our agency who do such great work for us and had the good sense to enter the awards.

Happy team here at Flirtomatic: we won a Meffy Award last night (for Best Social Network) which makes it two years in a row. Given the competition out there plenty of cause to feel pleased and humble at the same time. And of course it doesn’t mean we can sit back and relax……! MEF’s Executive Director, Rimma Perelmuter, said; “Congratulations to Flirtomatic for the exceptional achievement of scooping a Meffy for the second year running. “

Sometimes we are a bit taken aback at the virtual gifts and our customer’s appetite for them: it’s just happened again. We’ve sold over 5,000 virtual ice cubes in a week. Naturally they melt when they arrive.

We’re starting to sell our summer real gifts too: 8 mankinis so far (we knew they would be a slow burner) but 250 “snog balms” and the (Flirtomatic brand) flaming heart stress toy has kicked off really well too this week. No doubt now there’s great potential for real gifts sold off mobile.

Flirtomatic are recruiting a CRM Manager for the UK team to be located at the Soho, London office. The position is a superb opportunity for a responsive, dynamic CRM executive looking to move forward in their career within one of the Europe’s leading mobile community services. Please see the job spec below and forward CV and covering email to Mel - melissa@flirtomatic.com.

The role encompasses, but is not limited to

Managing the communications within a web and mobile social network to build the community through user retention and conversion to paying customers who buy premium services.

The management of CRM campaigns utilising internal and external messaging tool, budgeting, forecasting and planning of campaigns

Provide weekly plans and effectiveness reports to dept Head

Management of the CRM tools

Assist the Head of Dept in maintaining CRM and marketing procedures inline with the company strategies.

Ø Become recognized within the company as an expert on the 1:1 marketing space, as well as Flirtomatics internal communication, SMS and email marketing practice.

Ø Manage and continually optimize the creation and execution of all strategic and tactical elements of a portfolio of database marketing campaigns. This includes setting creative direction for in-house and external campaigns, including campaign objectives, messaging, promotions and seasonal themes

Ø Create and lead development of ongoing communications targeted toward multiple key segments within the Flirtomatic customer base

Ø Design and implement CRM strategies to achieve the goals of Customer Lifecycle Management and Premium Revenue services

Ø Work collaboratively with various internal teams to identify and implement new marketing programmes based on development of commercial opportunities and premium services

Ø Under the Head of Sales & Marketing’s direction, represent the commercial business objectives of the UK and international services

Ø Act as primary team representative to these various internal “clients” who rely on CRM marketing to advance their business needs

Ø Continually develop, measure, and optimize campaigns using internal tools. This position will assume direct ROI responsibility for premium services within Flirtomatic will be expected to maximize profitability of these programs over time.

Ø If appropriate and agreed with the Head of Dept but into place new tools to develop, measure,

Ø Manage internal and external resources to ensure that campaigns are executed accurately, effectively, and within budget.

Ø Work collaboratively with departments and individuals to identify database marketing opportunities to more effectively reach consumers in various high value segments.

EDUCATION / QUALIFICATIONS

Ø Degree level qualification

KNOWLEDGE / SKILLS / EXPERIENCE

Ø Two/Three years experience in a digital media CRM role

Ø Telecoms, and particularly mobile experience ideal

Ø Experience with more than one CRM tool an advantage

PERSONAL QUALITIES

Ø Self-motivated and ability to achieve deadlines and work independently

Ø Solid communication skills and team-working capability

Ø Ability to work with all cross company departments to achieve common goals

Ø Positive and logical approach together with willingness to learn

Ø Enthusiastic and fun to work with

Reviewing the user experience of Flirtomatic on mobile is an on going task and we pay close attention to other mobile Internet services globally looking for new ideas and inspiration. Recently I was asked by Alex Farber the Mobile Category reporter for New Media Age to share my thoughts on the new Yahoo UK One Search site and portal, my review below.

Phone type:       Nokia E71

British version of the new Beta site (not available on lower end handset)

Access:

Straight into the site no problem and immediately the One Search nav bar at the very top shows the real driving function of the site.  I do have the opportunity to personalise my location e.g. town or city.  By changing this I can get localised information such as weather.  Quick homepage navigation can be accessed top right through the house icon and next to this is what looks like a mobile device icon.  Not sure what I was going to find when I clicked this, initially thinking that it might allow me to change my device and therefore optimise the layout but no, I got Yahoo Everything, essentially a list of all Yahoo mobile products.  Actually quite useful for fast access if I actually used Yahoo services.

I actually expected to have to register for a Yahoo account to access the entire site but this is only required for messaging functions  and what looks like a Social Network aggregation tool.  I didn’t go ahead and register and I don’t expect many people would because if you don’t have a Yahoo ID you’re directed to sign up from your PC.

Presentation:

With the Yahoo ‘One search’ bar dominating the top of the homepage where a portal would normally have site navigation or 3^rd party banner ad, it’s clear and easy to type into.  Annoyingly when I do try to make a search I’m presented with web results means the sites are not suitable on my device.  I need to scroll down at least 3 pages before I get to the mobile Internet results.

Scrolling down the Homepage looking for new or unique services the cursor places a box around each link so there’s no mistake what I can click on, which is pretty much everything.  The homepage crams everything in with opportunities for further personalisation and encouraging the user to navigate the site particularly the My Interests and Yahoo News section.  Within the sub sections of News the use of small images and text presents a clear list of news items all of which are up to date.  Really like the ease of using the Add Anything to My Interest section for personalising news feeds, a simple search for Rugby gave me a list of suitable sites to link to or get RSS feeds from.

Usability:

Navigation is good, I always knew where I was and how to return to the previous page or the homepage.  Some of the features I would have liked to review on a lower end device to see if the same layout and link highlights were consistent.

The Bottomline:

A good clear site and one that I would return to for news and sport features and if I had time to personalise the My Interest section it would be a useful portal.  I’m not sure whether I’d use the One Search function, I’d probably continue to use the search facility I’ve book marked or provided by my Carrier portal.

We’re encouraged by some of the initial patterns we’ve been seeing since our US launch in earlier this year.  In addition, we’re really pleased to announce that we have  appointed Gary Cohen to cultivate the growth of the service in the US and establish Flirtomatic with US operators.

In February Flirtomatic began to be promoted on mobiles in the US and since then, numbers have been growing strongly from an initial test marketing push, giving clear evidence that demand is there. Users in the US are logging into the service daily over five times and sending 26 messages. Both stats are surprisingly similar to the UK user stats (given the early stage of the service there and overall user numbers). Anecdotally, it turns out that people in the US love flirting with Brits and vice versa, which is delivering critical mass earlier than expected. Also so far, 36% of US users are enjoying Flirtomatic on an iPhone, which is hardly surprising, given the handset’s success in the US.

As part of our push forward, we are aiming to build long-term, profitable relationships with US operators. Gary has spent 14 years of his career with US Mobile Network Operators, including US West Cellular (now Verizon Wireless) and AT&T Mobility, building high performance sales teams, opening new markets and innovative channels of distribution.

We say: It’s fantastic to have someone of Gary’s calibre as part of the team. His appointment serves as a statement of our intentions for the US and with his help, our strategy to attract network operators as we have successfully done here in the UK.

Gary says: “Flirtomatic has built a fantastic business in the UK that offers a secure, safe and reliable service to customers and operators alike.  My goal is to take the message out to US operators and build the US side of the business.”

The next part of our interview by Mobile Developer TV has been put up. Looking at this, it’s hard to remember that any company in the 90’s that got video coverage either paid heaps for a corporate video, and then had to work out how to distribute it physically (does anyone do that any more?) or were lucky enough to be featured on one of a handful of business programmes on “mainstream” TV. Now Ewan turns up on a Friday am, spends 2 hours here, and less than a week later a very targeted audience of 50,000 see a lot more about the company is doing. Faster times indeed.

Last week we saw Ewan McLeod of Mobile Developer TV and Mobile Industry Review (with luck the latter is springing back to life - we hope so as it was consistently sharp in its analysis). Anyway he did a video tour of the office and here it is….there should be an interview too coming soon. The video gives a pretty good idea of our team.