NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tesco Mobile has partnered exclusively with Unlockd, an ad and content-funded mobile platform, to launch Tesco Mobile Xtras. Powered by Unlockd - a new Android app available in the UK – Tesco Mobile Xtras is the first product of its kind in the UK to help customers reduce monthly phone payments in exchange for viewing exclusive content and offers when unlocking their Android smartphones.
Tesco Mobile Xtras, powered by Unlockd, is available to Tesco Mobile’s current and new pay monthly customers. The app connects users with relevant brands, content and special offers, and in exchange, users save £3 ($4.35 USD) off their pay monthly bill.
Through the partnership, geo-targeted ads, offers, discounts or content from brands such as British Airways, McDonalds, Doritos and Branston are shown at various times as consumers unlock their Android smartphones. Unlockd is also partnering with Facebook through The Audience Network to deliver relevant and personal Facebook ads to users who at anytime can interact further or dismiss ads with a simple click on the X.
Publisher News UK will exclusively provide the advertising inventory for Unlockd in the UK as well as deliver stories from The Sun. David Dinsmore, Chief Operating Officer, News UK, said, "This is an exciting partnership and gives us a new way to reach readers. It is also an opportunity for our advertising clients to reach consumers using Unlockd's innovative platform."
“At Tesco Mobile we’re committed to offering customers great value, simplicity and choice with exceptional rewards. Tesco Mobile Xtras, powered by Unlockd’s unique platform, provides our customers with even more choice and value. The opportunity for our customers to save money on their phone bill in exchange for learning about products and services relevant to them is a first in the UK market and we’re excited to exclusively offer this value to our customers,” said Anthony Vollmer, CEO of Tesco Mobile.
“Our UK launch exclusively with Tesco Mobile continues to realize our vision to forever change the way consumers pay for and use their mobile phones. To be the driver for collaboration and benefit for some of the world’s biggest media companies, a market leading mobile carrier, as well as the end consumer, is a huge coup. It is a move that will address existing challenges faced by our partners’ businesses and positively transform both the mobile advertising landscape and Telco industry,” said Matt Berriman, CEO and Co-Founder of Unlockd.
Sara Dunham, Head of Marketing, Retail and Direct at British Airways, said: “We are always looking for innovative and engaging ways to deliver to our customers offers and content to suit them. This new approach by Unlockd and Tesco Mobile means we can deliver exclusive offers to customers who’ve actively signed up and programmed in their preferences, so what they’re receiving is really relevant to them.”
Unlockd offers a unique and proven solution. By embracing a value exchange model, Unlockd helps Telco companies find new revenue streams; helps advertisers have first access to consumers on mobile devices, before Facebook and Google; and helps customers reduce their phone bills. It’s win-win-win.
Unlockd recently closed a $AU15 million ($11.2 million USD) series A Round from some of the biggest names in the business community, including PLC Ventures (Lead by Jeff Emmanuel), Peter Gammell (Non-Exec Seven West Media), Matt Rockman (Seek Co-Founder) and Sam Mostyn (Board member of Virgin Australia and Citibank).
ABOUT UNLOCKD
Unlockd is changing the way people use and pay for their mobile phones around the world. Unlockd’s revolutionary mobile technology lets users earn free additional data or handset payments, or a discount to their mobile phone bills, by viewing full-screen ads, offers and relevant content upon unlocking their phone.
Unlockd was founded in Melbourne and launched for the first time in Australia with Lebara Mobile in October 2015, followed by US with Sprint Mobile in January this year. The company has since opened offices in New York, Seattle and London.
