MTN, SA COMPANY IN JOINT SMS VENTURE

EZULWINI – Mobile phone owners will from next week Monday find an advert at the end of MTN text messages they receive.

Such messages will include ‘Please Call Me’, ‘Me to you’, ‘Mobile Money’, ‘Account Recharge’ and ‘Balance Enquiry.
This is a result of a partnership between MTN Swaziland and Integrat, which was launched at MTN’s Headquarters known as Mahlalekhukhwini House in Ezulwini yesterday. Integrat is a South African mobile advertising company.

Integrat Group Director Mike Laws, explained that MTN customers will not have to pay a cent for the adverts.
If anything, it will promote communication and interaction between cellphone users and the advertisers who can be businesses and organisations. The costs of this service will be borne by the advertiser who will pay a minimum charge per advertisement message. This will be multiplied by the number of targeted audience desired, starting from 1 000. However, Intergrate Country Manager Sibusiso Dlamini said it was important for a client to explain what they wanted to achieve and the market targeted before arriving to how much they would pay for the service.

“This partnership responds to His Majesty King Mswati III declaration in his stated vision to transform the Kingdom of Eswatini from a developing country to a developed first world country (Vision 2022). His Majesty’s vision has inspired and mobilised us to seek technical partners of the likes of MTN and Integrat from neighbouring South Africa,” said Zanele Dlamini, Integrat Swaziland Chairperson.

She stated that through their service it will be easier for businesses to keep their clientele informed of services they offered, create awareness and educate the public on their products, as well as accessing bigger markets beyond the borders.

Meanwhile, during his presentation, Laws (Group Director) said this new service would enable companies to rake it better profits because of the huge mobile phone market. He said the trick to doing that was to make the advertisement message relevant to the end user. 

Laws said that this form of advertising was better than using TV and radio or billboard mediums because a cellphone can be carried anywhere and whatever message received was direct to the end-user. Furthermore cellphones were the last thing most people looked at before going to bed or first when waking up. 

Integrat provides a similar service for MTN South Africa and Airtel in West Africa just to list a few. Their Swaziland offices are located at the Corner Plaza.

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