Turkcell Leverages Microsoft Tag Technology in New Mobile Marketing Solution

REDMOND, Washington, February 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Turkcell's MobilKod offers value-added services for marketers that want to connect consumers to brand experiences in the online world.

Turkish mobile operator Turkcell and Microsoft Tag today announced a new mobile marketing service called MobilKod, built by Turkcell and leveraging Microsoft Tag's mobile tagging technology. With this launch, Turkcell becomes the first mobile operator to extend the value of Microsoft Tag to provide an innovative campaign management service for marketers and advertisers. MobilKod provides a mobile marketing platform for brands and advertisers to reach millions of mobile subscribers in Turkey and beyond.

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The MobilKod service (http://www.mobilkod.com.tr) offers a free service that allows marketers to create Tags. These 2-D bar codes can be placed on objects and in printed materials, and, when scanned with the free mobile application (available at http://gettag.mobi/tr), they unlock an interactive mobile experience provided by the brand or advertiser, such as a video, photo slideshow or mobile website. With MobilKod, marketers can create and measure the effectiveness of campaigns that use Tags to create holistic brand experiences by connecting their products and materials in the physical world to information and interactive content in the digital world.

"As an established innovator in mobile marketing, our mission is to integrate mobile channels into the marketing mix for 360-degree marketing, as well as create additional revenues and expand mobile marketing through interactive experiences and advertising applications," said Sureyya Ciliv, CEO of Turkcell. "In order to do that, we aim to transform mobile media into a highly responsive, measurable and interactive channel. Enterprises can use this channel to reach existing and potential customers while measuring the rate of return from their investments via detailed reports and analyses."

Turkcell is investing in innovative services and products, such as location-based services, augmented reality solutions, display advertising, conceptual branded ad packages, mobile TV advertising, and video advertising for companies and brands. MobilKod is a new service to expand this product portfolio and provides the critical ability for brands to create and measure interactive campaigns that connect their products and services to convenient, on-the-go experiences for consumers.

The MobilKod Tag Reader (http://www.mobilkod.com.tr) is available in Turkey and is available for free on all supported devices, including Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, J2ME, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices by visiting http://gettag.mobi/tr.

"We're excited to have Turkcell as our first mobile operator partner to extend the Microsoft Tag platform and offer additional value to brands and marketing partners," said Brian Fleisher, senior director, product management and business development for Microsoft Tag at Microsoft Corp. "Microsoft Tag offers a flexible mobile marketing solution, and, combined with the innovation and reach Turkcell provides, marketers have a powerful new channel for reaching their customers when and where they're most interested."

More information about MobilKod can be found at http://www.mobilkod.com.tr.

About Turkcell

Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey with 33.9 million postpaid and prepaid customers and a market share of approximately 55% as of September 30, 2010 (Source: Our estimations, operator's and the Telecommunication Authority's announcements). Turkcell provides high quality data and voice services to approximately 80% of the Turkish population through its 3G technology supported network and to 99.07% of the Turkish population through its 2G technology supported network. Turkcell reported TRY2.3 billion ($1.5 billion) net revenue for the period ended September 30, 2010 and its total assets reached TRY14.5 billion ($10.0 billion) as of September 30, 2010. Turkcell has become one of the first operators among the global operators to have implemented HSDPA+ and to reach to 42.2 Mbps speed with HSPA multi carrier solution. Turkcell is a leading regional player and has interests in international mobile operations in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Ukraine which, together with its Turkish operations, had approximately 60.4 million subscribers as of September 30, 2010. Turkcell has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000 and is the only NYSE listed company in Turkey and is among the top 15% of companies listed on NYSE by its size as of October 2010. 51.00% of Turkcell's share capital is held by Turkcell Holding, 0.05% by Cukurova Holding, 13.07% by Sonera Holding, 1.18% by M.V. Group and 0.01% by others while the remaining 34.69% is free float. Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr/en.

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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.