Blyk

Whoa. It’s happened. A purely youth-oriented, ad-supported mobile brand is launching in Britain under the name Blyk. It’s pretty simple really: you sign up for Blyk, via invite, and they send you a SIM card for your phone that gives you 217 text messages (hey, you big texter, you!) and 43 minutes of talk time. Or, simply put, Blyk goes out and finds brands that want to talk to 16-24 year olds. It charges these brands for sending them messages, and gives them money back in the form of free texts and minutes. The network is limited to 16-24 year olds and is currently only available in mainland Britain.

In an effort to create interest among the youth market, Blyk has also created a series of branded animations. They’re available for viewing on YouTube, and I assume will be sent out as media messages directly to Blyk users as well. Have a look; some of them are pretty slick.