Airtel Partners Kirusa To Launch Celebrity Connect

And Connects Airtel Nigeria Customers With Their Favourite Celebs

By Adebayo Dawodu
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In line with its commitment to continually delight and excite telecoms consumers across the country, leading telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria, in partnership with Kirusa, leader in voice messaging and social media mobile apps for emerging markets, has announced the launch of Celebrity Connect, an innovative mobile service that connects Nigerians with their favourite celebrities and personalities.

The service enables fans to reach out and connect with their favorite celebs. Top celebrities like Ace Comedian, AY, Nollywood stars Mike Ezuruonye and Kate Henshaw, actress, amongst others, are using the service to more personally engage with their fans.

Using Celebrity Connect, celebrities share their daily lives, thoughts, and emotions in their own voice with their fans. Participating stars can call a number or use smartphones to leave messages. These messages are then delivered immediately to fans, who can listen to what is happening in their most cherished celebrities' lives, in the celebrities' own voice, which creates a 'Voice Twitter'-like experience.

Nigerian customers can call, and listen to what's happening over the phone Furthermore, the fans get an opportunity to speak and engage with the celebrities in multiple ways on-line and off-line.

Speaking on the innovative service, Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Maurice Newa, noted that the introduction of Celebrity Connect as a social platform which links Airtel customers with their favourite celebrities is an indication that the service provider remains committed to offering unique and quality products and services to its new and existing customers in Nigeria.

He said: 'At Airtel Nigeria we strive to create exciting experience for our customers through our offerings, that is why we have in our stable an array of innovative products and bespoke services which are unique and entertaining, providing new experiences to millions of our subscribers.

'Celebrity Connect is a product tailored to bridge the gap between top celebrities across various sphere of entertainment and their fans that always yearn to hear, feel close and know more about them. This platform therefore adds to the channels through which millions of fans can connect with their celebrities in Nigeria,' he said.

He also noted that Celebrity Connect as a mobile service platform rides on the strength of Airtel's 3.75G service which delivers quality telecommunications voice and data services across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria.

Celebrity Connect, which is powered by Kirusa's Vobolo social media platform, has been launched by Airtel Ghana and is now immediately available to all customers of Airtel in Nigeria.

Commenting on the launch, Taranjit Singh Batra, Vice President of Sales at Kirusa says, 'With the growth of social media, celebrities are more online now than ever before. However, connecting with them through these platforms is not always easy. But, with Celebrity Connect, fans not only hear their celebrities' voice, but also get opportunities to interact and meet with them. All this regardless of the mobile device they carry. I am optimistic Airtel Nigeria customers will relish every moment spent with their favorite stars.'

To subscribe, Airtel Nigeria customers can send name of favorite celebrity to 2656 e.g. Mike Ezuruonye to 2656.

The subscription cost N25 per day and N2.50 for recurrent listening to a message. Customers who may wish to forward the messages to other Airtel numbers will have to pay N10 extra.