Mobinil and Alcatel-Lucent Introduce a Mobile Advertising Service That Enables Conversations Between Consumers and Brands

PARIS and CAIRO, December 2, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mobinil mobile phone subscribers in Egypt now have access to interactive advertising tailored to their personal interests through a strategic partnership between Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) and Mobinil (EMOB.CA), Egypt's leading mobile operator.

Based on Alcatel-Lucent's Optism(TM) mobile marketing solution, it provides Mobinil's customers with a permission and preference-based mobile advertising service. The service invites Mobinil's nearly 30 million customers to opt-in to receive ads and offers from their favorite brands. By sharing their interests with Mobinil, customers can receive promotions, discounts, content and exclusive opportunities.

During an initial soft launch including major and international brands more than 200,000 subscribers opted-in and used the service successfully. Advertiser partners at launch included Adidas(R) and Nokia(R) who both have experienced higher response rates in comparison to other digital media.

"In response to the dynamic situation in the mobile industry, Mobinil is naturally involved in an array of multi-faceted business partnerships, which includes being an internet service provider, a banking services provider, an entertainment portal, or a media agency. It is in this context that we are entering into this strategic partnership with Alcatel-Lucent in this area," said Hassan Kabbani, Mobinil CEO.

"The advertisers in the service have had phenomenal response rates to their campaigns - as high as 35% due to the focus on the users' interests, so our customers only receive relevant ads," added Hassan Kabbani.

Adidas, one of the world's leading sportswear brands, was an early adopter of Mobinil Ads.

"We recently ran a campaign with Mobinil to invite customers to our new flagship store in Cairo," said Burga Hatipoglu, Marketing manager Egypt for Adidas. "The response was way beyond our expectations and we are very excited about the potential of this new form of advertising."

"Alcatel-Lucent is creating the conditions and the ecosystem to quickly develop a sustainable and profitable mobile advertising business for Mobinil, thanks to an innovative business model," said Amr El-Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent business in the Middle East & Africa. "This commercial contract illustrates our commitment to helping mobile operators identify strategic market opportunities and determine the appropriate business model for their market."

Optism(TM) is the permission based mobile marketing solution from Alcatel-Lucent that bridges the gap between operators and advertisers. Optism(TM) is a unique offering that enables mobile operators to create highly responsive, permission and preference-based mobile inventory providing advertisers with easy access to willing and highly targeted audiences. Building upon successes in Europe with Orange Austria, Alcatel-Lucent is now forging relationships with leading operators in strategic emerging markets, including Egypt, with more to follow.

For more information on the Alcatel-Lucent Optism(TM) solution, please click here. (http://www.optism-ww.com/)

About Mobinil

Since its inception in May 1998, Mobinil has strived to maintain its position as the leading Mobile service operator in Egypt. Honoring the trust of more than 27 million subscribers, Mobinil is committed to being the leading mobile service provider in Egypt, providing the best quality service for our customers, the best working environment for our employees, top value for our shareholders, and proudly contributing to the development of the community.

Visit us on http://www.mobinil.com

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent's blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent