Finnish Riot-E brings Bridget Jones to SMS

5 Apr 2001 at 07:00 GMT Marc van Impe

You hate her or love her, there’s no way in the middle, but the risk is real she’ll ring you up. Bridget Jones is not only chain-smoking and obsessed by her weight, she’s also a typical singleton depending on her cell phone to get her social life working. This spring the brainchild of best-selling writer Helen Fielding, will terrorize her fans via daily text messages on the quest for inner poise, trim thighs and other key "global topics."

"For singletons like Bridget, the phone is becoming a major means of human contact," Fielding said in a statement. "Texting allows followers to hear from Bridget more often than they hear from some of their own friends."

Finnish wireless entertainment publisher Riot Entertainment will launch the service on April 13 - when the film version of Bridget's travails hits British cinema screens - under a two-year global deal with Fielding. The Bridget Jones Diaries, which began life as a newspaper column, then turned into a best-selling book and now into a film version, has its premiere in London this week.

"Texting allows one to be much more obsessive even than email," Fielding said. "You can be in communication with significant others anytime and anywhere (or not, which can be heartbreaking and obviously requires major analysis and discussion through further texting)."

Riot’s service includes an "Ask Bridget" service, Bridget Jones' Guide To Life and discussion of dieting, dating, self-help and thigh circumference, how to handle men and manage friendships.

"I have no doubt that after pioneering e-mail flirtation, Bridget has by now become an SMS junkie," Fielding added.

The service targets women in their late twenties and early thirties, as well as "curious men." Riot-E said 80 percent of this target audience were likely to be mobile users.

"Mobile phones are a perfect way to add another dimension to book characters such as Bridget," Riot-E CEO Jan Wellmann said. "Mobile is flexible, dynamic and has an immediacy which is not possible with any other medium. Bridget can text others every day to report on the progress of her bikini diet or other urgent matters."

Riot –E also hopes to attract still hesitating advertisers. No rates were mentioned.