Paf must avoid marketing war, says CEO
Finnish operator to expand on its mobile portfolio with in-house products as it praises "special relationship" with customers
Finnish operator Paf must continue to develop the “special relationship” it has with its customers if it is to continue to grow in the face of fierce competition, group CEO Anders Ingves has told eGaming Review.
The group’s online business Paf.com yesterday reported a 7% increase in turnover year-on-year to 73m, helping to boost total group operating profit for 2013 by 24% to 30.9m.
Speaking to eGR this morning, Ingves said growth of this business was attributable to the relationship the operator has with its customers and improvements it had made to its online offering over the year, claiming that it could not compete with the marketing clout other operators may have.
“It’d be easy to fall into a marketing war, so we need to keep developing this relationship with our customers so that word of mouth spreads,” Ingves said.
The operator’s first mobile products were released in April last year and having predicted revenue from the channel to continue to grow, Ingves refused to rule out the release of more mobile products in the coming months.
Ingves did not however predict this summer’s World Cup to boost revenues significantly, unlike other European operators that have stated the tournament to be a vital source of revenue.
“It’s not extremely important for us,” Ingves said. “It may boost revenues, but only a little.”