Earn mobile credit by getting your friends to watch ads!

Thanks Contagious

To anyone who’s on Virgin Mobile US and has befriended every man and his dog on Facebook, the ‘fund my phone’ application is a dream come true.

On adding the app to their profile, Facebook aficionados can invite their friends to watch ads by entering a phone number or email address in the ‘to’ box. They then receive an extra minute of free airtime for every four friends who give a minute of their time.

For Virgin Mobile, which has already experimented in the ad-funded calls area, ‘fund my phone’ marks a positive entry into the social networking space: not only do customers benefit directly, but non-Virgin Mobile users will be exposed to the brand and will see friends acquiring free minutes for themselves rather than relying on word of mouth.

‘Fund my phone’ extends Virgin Mobile’s SugarMama programme which offers customers up to 75 minutes of free airtime a month in return for watching ads (although no timewasters, please - participants have to answers questions to prove they were paying attention). Since it was first introduced in 2006, SugarMama has served up over 20m free minutes.

‘Fund my phone’ has already attracted 327 fans and five-star reviews from Facebook friends who, in the true spirit of social networking, are suggesting a ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ arrangement. It’s certainly refreshing to see an application that gives something meaningful back to users rather than the more run-of-the-mill vampire-bites or custard-pies.

Blyk, a similar service which has launched in the UK and is about to embark on a pan-European roll-out - has already sussed that the way to conquer the hearts and minds of mobile-obsessed 16-24 year olds is to give them free texts and free minutes in return for receiving between four and six ad messages a day. Blyk attracted 100,000 users in the UK six months ahead of its target and claims that response rates to its advertising messages from the likes of Xbox and adidas are averaging 29%.

If an ad does touch you in some way, the temptation to forward it to Facebook friends and earn free airtime will be hard to resist. Everyone’s a winner. But only if the ads are any good to start with…
www.virginmobileusa.com/stuff/sugarmama.do