Jaguar Celebrates Mobile Campaign Success

Jaguar Cars has announced results from its mobile advertising campaign in the US. The campaign drives traffic to its mobile Internet site, created by Global Beach and built by Incentivated, which promotes the new luxury Jaguar XF.
The mobile advertising campaign appears on mobile Internet sites including MSN.mobi, cars.mobi, Yahoo Mobile and admob.com. Since its launch in November to coincide with the unveiling of the XF at the Los Angeles motor show, the campaign has delivered over 15 million ad impressions across the mobile Internet, delivering over 85,000 unique visitors to the Jaguar XF WAP site, representing a clickthrough rate of 0.6%. Mobile banner ads are the only medium used to promote the WAPsite.
Global Beach, Jaguar’s world-wide digital agency, designed the WAP site for the US market, partnering with mobile specialist Incentivated for the build. The site (www.jaguarxf.mobi) provides a gallery of high quality images to promote the car’s design, innovation and performance, including high- and low-resolution versions of XF videos.
The site allows visitors to input their ZIP code in order to locate their nearest dealer and book a test drive, or to order a brochure. Visitors can also submit their email address in order to request a branded email newsletter, and can download wallpapers to their handsets.
The site uses detection software to ensure the content served to visitors’ mobile browsers is dynamically optimized for each handset. As a result, the service automatically resizes the WAP site for viewing on iPhones, Smartphones, BlackBerrys, PDAs and over 2,000 other mobile devices in use across the US. The campaign was  large enough to warrant a dedicated iPhone mobile Internet site, despite the views of some who claim regular websites look good enough for the small screen of an iPhone.
Since the campaign launch, there have been over 12,000 videos and more than 16,000 wallpapers downloaded. For users who ventured beyond the home-page, the average dwell time was 2 minutes, 12 seconds. 1.2% of users requested an email brochure by entering their email address into the WAPsite. 2.6% located their nearest dealer to arrange a test drive.
“Jaguar is proud to translate our positive digital experiences with mobile marketing, and to deliver an engaging and rich brand experience for our technologically advanced customer base,” says Rome Murphy, Interactive Marketing Manager for Jaguar North America. “We are particularly impressed with the user experience across a broad range of handset types.”
Robert Thurner, Commercial Director at Incentivated adds: “We applaud Jaguar for running a campaign which harnesses the mobile medium’s unique strengths in combining exceptional rich content with a response mechanic and location-based services. Yielding a healthy ROI, the campaign demonstrates the exceptional value mobile marketing can deliver.”

News from Brazil

Brazilian mobile marketing agency pontomobi interactive has been bombarding our inbox with details of recent campaigns, not to mention some, frankly, rather saucy promotional imagery. The information the company has sent through is short and to the point, so rather than pad it out for the sake of it, we present, instead, a round-up of what the company has been up to lately. If nothing else, it shows that mobile marketing is alive and kicking in S. America.

AXE Girl Contest
For AXE, pontomobi is running a mobile marketing campaign to promote the new fragrance, ‘Dark Temptation’.
In conjunction with Playboy Magazine, Axe is looking to find the next AXE Girl. Member sof the public can vote for their favourite by texting their name to the shortcode, 27114. AXE then sends a return SMS with a WAP push link to access the mobile site (wap.axe.com.br), where consumers can see pictures of all the candidates, download them for free, and send on to their friends.

FIAT Bluetooth Campaign
For car maker FIAT, pontimobi is running a Bluetooth campaign to promote the launch of the Stilo Dualogic. The campaign targets consumers in 21 coffee bars in six Brazilian cities. Point of sale material within each venue encourages consumers to activate Bluetooth on their handsets in order to receive wallpapers, ringtones and videos.

Boteco Mobile Bars Guide
Late last year, pontimobi ran its first mobile campaign for beer brand AMBEV. The ‘Boteco Bohemia’ campaign ran in 31 bars in Sao Paulo, inciting the city’s inhabitants to vote for Sao Paolo’s best snack.
pontomobi developed a mobile guide for the event, available via a mobile Internet site (www.botecobohemia.com.br/mobile), and via a downloadable J2ME application.
Traffic was driven to the mobile site via a call to action encouraging consumers to text the word BOTECO to the shortcode, 27114. In return, the consumer received a WAP Push message with a link to the site. Consumers could also get the link by entering their name and mobile number on a dedicated website.
The mobile guide included general information about the event; a list of nominated snacks complete with photos; and a list of participating bars, including history and location details. Other features included click-to-call and incite-a-friend functionality.
During the four week duration of the campaign, more than 55,000 people visited the mobile site, while the Java mobile guide was downloaded 15.000 times.

Sprite MSN Campaign
For Sprite, pontomobi devised a mobile campaign for MSN Messenger users that enabled them to send free voice and text messages direct from the MSN Tab to friends’ phones. The message content was based on the campaign slogan: ‘Things as they are’ and could be sent either as a humorous SMS, or as a SAM (Short Audio Message), with voice messages recorded by musician and MTV presenter, João Gordo.
For the SMS messages, the name of the sender appeared within the SMS. For the SAM messages, after receiving the call, the recipient received an SMS informing them who has sent the message. 
In less than three weeks, 150,000 messages were sent.

NHS Turns To SMS for Appointment Reminders

Mobile messaging company Mediaburst has revealed the results of a pilot programme at Hull and East Yorkshire Woman and Children's Hospital, of an SMS-based patient appointments system. According to Mediaburst, NHS Trusts nationwide are now looking to adopt the reminder service that helps reduce missed patient appointments and resulting losses in hospital revenues.
The Managed Appointment Reminder Service (MARS), aims to help NHS Trusts slash an estimated £614 million out of their operating costs each year due to patient no-shows. The service was developed by wirless application developer Island Communications, in association with the NHS and Mediaburst.
The service is a fully managed solution, which sends out a text message reminder to all patients or customers nominated mobile phone at an agreed date ahead of the forthcoming appointment. On receipt of their Appointment Reminder, patients or customers are able to note the reminder, and then have the opportunity to reply, should they be unable to attend their appointment. Patients who do not have a mobile may nominate the mobile number of a relative, carer or friend to pass on reminders on their behalf.
Hull and East Yorkshire Woman and Children's Hospital’s Paediatric Outpatients Unit was the first to test the system. Providing specialist and general care to children who have been referred to its consultants, around 15,000 outpatient appointments are scheduled by the unit each year. Over 20% of these are missed, however, because outpatients simply forget to attend.
“Clearly, missed outpatient appointments are a prime concern to the unit for a number of reasons, the most important being the health and well-being of the child,” says Paediatric Services Manager, Jackie Timson. “First and foremost, we want to ensure that children under our medical care are receiving the attention and treatment they need to recover fully from any health problems they have experienced. A further concern is the financial impact of missed appointments as PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) do not fund missed appointments. This represents a significant loss to the potential income to the Trust.” 
Like all areas of the NHS, the Unit is constantly striving to maximise its resources so that it can improve the service it offers to the community.  One of its principal aims is to reduce the length of time between a patient being referred into the service to receiving treatment, in line with the Government's 2008 18 week referral-to-treatment target. Because missed appointments usually need to be rescheduled, the end result is delays for other patients, which makes it harder to achieve this aim.
The Paediatric Services Unit uses the MARS service to send a text message to the parents of outpatients several days before their appointment to remind them to attend. Of a sample of patients who were asked whether or not they would be happy to receive this type of reminder, over 90% said they would like to.
Timson says that reminding patients of appointments via the messaging service is playing a valuable part in reducing the number of missed appointments at the unit. “During the last three months, we’ve experienced a noticeable drop in the number of patients who haven’t attended appointments," she says. “In some cases, it’s unavoidable that an appointment will be missed, but because we provide an option to reply within the reminder we send, patients can let us know through the MARS management system if they’re not able to attend and in many cases we can allocate their slot to another patient, which is a further advantage of the system.”
Since the Trust started to use the MARS application, its bank of patient mobile holdings has grown from below 3% to around 30% and senior management have now approved the extended roll out of the MARS application. Since the introduction of MARS, DNA (did not attend) rates have fallen, with good results achieved in all participating departments.
The MARS service has been adopted by Cable & Wireless as their recommended Managed Reminder Service for NHS Trusts, and Island Communications, in Partnership with Cable and Wireless, has recently won a major contract to role the service out to Trusts throughout the UK.

Using Mobile as a Store-finding Tool

Paint manufacturer Crown Paints has turned to mobile technology to help solve a problem that was potentially costing the company money in lost sales. The company’s main customer base consists of professional painters and decorators. As these tradesmen tend to cover a wide area, they may not know where their nearest Crown Decorator Centre is located. Crown needed an easy and convenient way of allowing the customer to find their nearest Centre while they are out and about. The answer lay in Radius, a mobile technology platform designed by mobile agency Wapfly for exactly this type of situation.
To find their nearest Crown Decorator Centre, the customer texts the word CROWN to the shortcode, 87766. The Radius platform detects the mobile user’s location and responds with a text message telling the customer the location of the nearest Centre. An option is also available for the customer to then phone the branch directly in order to check or pre-order stock.
“This type of technology has the potential to drastically alter the way that we communicate with customers, allowing businesses to reach the customer directly and fine tune any marketing specifically to them,” says Wapfly Technical Director, David Hague. “There is also the opportunity to generate extra revenue from this form of marketing, though Crown chose to charge their customers nothing for the service. The only cost to the customer is the price of the text message.”

Using Mobile in the Retail Environment

Brazilian mobile marketing agency pontomobi interactive has released details of a campaign staged for Center Norte in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest shopping centre, in the run up to Christmas last year. There were four elements to the campaign: Bluetooth marketing, SMS interaction, a mobile Internet site, and voice calls.
The campaign began with a teaser using Bluetooth technology to communicate with the public, informing them that something new coming to the shopping centre. Six Bluetooth devices were installed in the mall’s central square to broadcast the teaser messages.
The second element was an interactive SMS campaign that enabled shoppers to decorate an interactive Christmas tree in the centre. To take part, shoppers sent a free text to a shortcode, 27114, containing the name of a gift. There were 100 gifts to choose from, with each one lighting the corresponding gift on the Christmas tree. More than 450,000 people interacted with the decoration during the four weeks of the campaign.
In addition, everyone who texted in received a return text message inviting them to visit the shopping centre’s mobile site at: www.natalcn.mobi to find out more about the campaign, and download free content.
Finally, inside the shopping centre, there were booths where shoppers could send Christmas voice messages recorded by Santa Claus. More than 150,000 voice messages were sent in just two weeks.

Trinty Mobile and GCap - Mobile Ticketing

Trinity Mobile and GCap Media have worked together over the past three months to bring mobile ticketing to XFM and Capital Radio listeners across the capital.
As part of XFM’s 10th Birthday celebrations, the station has put on a series of 10 concerts, featuring some of the biggest names in music. Tickets for the concerts have been, and still are, available to winners of competitions run on air. Winners simply give their mobile phone number to the DJ and are then sent a pair of mobile tickets directly to their mobile phone on the day of the concert. Winners then turn up at the venue - venues have included London Astoria, The Scala, Barfly, Buffalo Bar and 229 - and have their ticket scanned by a portable handheld scanner, linked via a wireless network into a live ticket database. Once tickets are redeemed, winners can enter the venue and enjoy a great night in front of some of the best known bands in the world in a small, private, exclusive venue.
To date, over 1,000 winners and thousands of VIP and Guest List invitees have attended these exclusive events using mobile tickets. A 100% scan rate has been recorded at every event, with a complete elimination of touting or fraudulent use of any ticket. VIP and Guest List management has become a simple and efficient process using the system, with all the usual paper lists and manual checking a thing of the past.
The final two birthday events will feature The Klaxons at The Scala on 8 November, and another major band at an event yet to be announced shortly after. Capital FM has also used the mobile ticketing system for a number of CapitaLive events, including concerts by David Gray, Hard-Fi and Rhianna. It will also be used for a James Blunt gig on 5 November at The Park Club.
GCap says it now intended to offer mobile ticketing for all its events across the group’s radio stations, both the distribution of free and competition winner tickets for in house and promotional events, and also for purchased tickets for some of the bigger events the group runs.
“This service has completely changed the way we run ticketed events internally,” says GCap Head of Mobile, Beth Wilderspin. “I am able to set up, launch, manage and report on events in minutes using the Easy Ticket software provided by Trinity Mobile. It makes it so easy. I then have event teams out on site running the ticket redemption using the FoneScan barcode scanners, reading barcodes directly off the phones screen, enabling us to redeem hundreds of tickets in minutes, making for efficient and reliable entry in to a venue.
“It has been a pleasure working with Trinity, who have helped us every step of the way with advice, help and support so that I am now at a point where I can run all our ticketing events in-house without any external support or providers, other than the software sitting on my PC and the scanners we keep for events.”
Trinity Mobile Commercial Director Rob Clegg adds:
“Working with GCAP has been a great experience as they have adopted this market-leading service with such enthusiasm – hopefully that has been based on the ease of use, reliability and quality of the services we have supplied. The mobile ticketing service is ideally suited to radio, as it allows tickets to be won or purchased with a very simple call to action and no need for PC’s, the Internet, paper or the post -  a true anywhere, anytime service just like radio”. 

Pitch - Using Mobile as a Cold Acquisition Tool

Pitch Entertainment Group  is a global mobile entertainment company, headquartered in London, providing mobile phone content and mobile community solutions. In November 2006, it launched Pitch, a UK mobile social network, (www.pitch.mobi)  which has consistently doubled its membership every month. Pitch members have access to unlimited free mobile content including ringtones and wallpapers and can upload their own photos, blogs and other content. In return for this members agree to accept up to three targeted advertising messages per week.
Pitch sees the market advancing towards a point where a multichannel approach to reaching consumers will be essential for the existence of consumer brands. Mobile is still a new medium, but is going to be key and Pitch predicts that it will eventually overtake the web as the most effective direct marketing channel as it is so accessible and personal; consumers have developed a personal relationship with their phones, using them not just as a tool but an extension of their social network.
Also in 2006, the company expanded its international operations to five new countries. Pitch asked Come & Stay for support in launching its Splash Mobile brand internationally, and generating subscribers to the service. Germany and Spain are now Pitch’s largest markets. Worldwide, the company has over 250,000 subscribers.
Pitch uses a number of channels to market, including the Internet, TV, email and direct marketing to consumers’ handsets. Currently 90% of the company’s marketing budget is spent on WAP pushes, with one week’s free content as the call to action/incentive, though in the next few years, Pitch expects the marketing mix to change to about 40% WAP pushes/banners, 30% TV and 30% email and other media. WAP push campaigns were chosen initially as the most obvious marketing tool to sign up subscribers, as users who are interested in mobile content are more likely to respond to mobile marketing messages. But now Pitch has reached a threshold of users, and believes it needs to make itself more accessible to the later adopters of mobile content who are less likely to respond to mobile calls to action.
Pitch engaged Come & Stay to devise the SMS and WAP mobile campaigns to a key target audience of 16-35 year old male and female mobile phone owners in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway and Belgium. Pitch used the Come & Stay mobile marketing platform and gateway to broadcast the messages, and Come & Stay’s opted-in consumer mobile database to select the lists. In most countries the full database of young consumers was targeted for a test campaign. WAP campaigns can easily go wrong, which is why rigorous testing was carried out to test the WAP links and download times. The test campaigns took anywhere between one day and one week to plan, execute and analyze.
The campaigns were targeted during certain times of the year when response was expected to be higher, including Valentines Day, Christmas and Easter, with the incentive of one week’s worth of free mobile content. Pitch and Come & Stay opted to use SMS and WAP, as opposed to MMS, due to the budget constraints, and the lack of brand uplift that it was felt would be achieved by using imagery. A simple message read: ‘Get 3 free ring-tones from Splash' together with a WAP link and the Unsubscribe instructions.
The international marketing team at Pitch worked with Come & Stay to target the right audience, to write the messages in the local language, to tailor the messages per country, and to test and analyze the response per country.
The campaigns have generated between 5-15% response to the call to action, with a 1% conversion to new members. The Swedish campaign alone generated 9,500 new members and what Come & Stay describes as: “a pleasing ROI.”
“The response from the initial tests have persuaded us of the benefit of undertaking a Europe wide campaign with Come & Stay, and they have proved to us they can deliver a consistently good response across all countries,” says Pitch Data Acquisition Specialist, Harry Dewhirst. “The test campaign in Sweden was an amazing success, with 9,500 new subscribers. The list was of top quality and permission of users guaranteed. With Come & Stay, we can gain a worldwide deal and at the same time have one point of contact with our global account manager. Promises have been kept and the staff are very efficient and trustworthy.”

Shortcode Generates 15% Direct Mail Response

Mobile solutions provider Interlinked Media  reports that it recently joined forces with the Sunderland Empire theatre to generate a targeted, opted-in mobile marketing database of 23,000 potential customers in just six weeks.
A direct mail campaign initiated by the theatre and its advertising agency, Mike Lynch Advertising, went to almost 150,000 addresses in the Sunderland area. The mailer invited recipients to text EMPIRE and their postcode to 60777 to see if they had won a prize from a list including free tickets to shows at the theatre, discounts on ticket prices and free refreshments or ice cream.
“We asked Interlinked Media to construct and run the entire mobile campaign for the Sunderland Empire” says Clare Lee from Mike Lynch Advertising. “In the space of six weeks, over 23,000 unique people responded to the campaign, a response rate in excess of 15%. On several days, over 3,500 people entered the promotion, resulting in queues down the street to redeem free or discounted tickets.”
Chris Newell, CEO of Interlinked Media adds:
“This shows how powerful mobile can be when used in the right way. The Empire were looking to generate a database they could use for six to 12 months. Now we have the data, we will work together to put it to good use with targeted campaigns and boost their already excellent ROI. Mobile marketing is direct, interactive, spontaneous and above all targeted. Business can save over 80% of their normal direct marketing budget by utilizing this device, which nearly 100% of your potential customers carry, 24x7”
Interlinked Media, formerly trading as Text You, is located in Newcastle upon Tyne. Founded in 2002, the company has recently re-branded following the successful launch of its American office, which in turn has led to several recent successes with high profile clients in the commercial, advocacy and political markets.
The company is a strategy developer and solutions provider for marketing agencies and brand managers. Using mobile phone technology to pull data in and push relevant and context-rich messages out, companies can increase the effectiveness of their marketing and advertising campaigns, PR and customer relationship management. Interlinked’s current clients include English Heritage, Ultimate Leisure, Yates, Different and Newcastle Eagles.

Borders Hails Mobile Success

Books and music retailer Borders has announced encouraging results from its first mobile marketing campaign, carried out by Magnet Harlequin.
Borders distributes a monthly newsletter with exclusive offers to its database of 480,000 customers across the UK. In order to redeem these offers, consumers previously had to print the vouchers off and take them in store. This month, for the first time, consumers were able to have the offers sent to their mobile phones. 69% of respondents said yes to mobile vouchers. In addition, 50% of these customers also opted-in to receive future offers from Borders Mobile.
Scott Seaborn, Head of Technology at Magnet Harlequin, says mobile marketing is changing the promotional landscape and challenging perceptions of how to engage with consumers:
“We know that mobile technology has so much to offer promotional marketing” says Seaborn. “One of our key tenets for retail and mobile is to drive footfall, and we knew that a high profile, innovative retailer like Borders would be able to make the most of mobile marketing as a way of bringing consumers in store.”
Laura Stafford, CRM and Online Manager at Borders adds:
“We are delighted with the redemption figures. They have far exceeded our expectations. One offer in particular achieved a 19% redemption, double that of the printed voucher alternative. To achieve 15% of net sales through Borders Mobile in just one campaign means that we are really connecting with our consumers.”
Borders is now planning more mobile promotions with Magnet Harlequin.

Underwear Brief for Txt4

Bravissimo, which styles itself as the “lingerie retailer for  big boobed women” has reported great success following its use of mobile marketing in its latest national advertising campaign that went live in March. Promoting its Spring and Summer mail order catalogues, the press, TV, radio and direct mail campaign carries an SMS call to action provided by mobile technology company TXT4. Consumers are encouraged to request a brochure by simply texting the specified keyword e.g. ‘Curvy’ to 64118. The TV ad featured phone and website calls to action, as well as the text shortcode, but SMS proved to be the most popular communication channel for consumers, with SMS requests accounting for 45% of total responses. Using SMS has also provided Bravissimo with an accurate tool for helping measure the return on its marketing investment. “Assigning a unique keyword to each advertising placement across all media channels enables us to see exactly where leads come from to help determine how successful each has been in generating response” says Bravissimo Marketing Director, Jo Lee. “In addition, profiling respondents gives valuable insights into the types of consumers we’re successfully attracting and also allows us to better analyse the impact of individual TV and radio spot times. This is valuable information when planning future campaigns. ” TXT4 CEO Tim Carrigan says use of SMS for this type of activity is growing among its client base. “Of the 230 major brand campaigns we currently manage, from global automotive manufacturers to travel companies, 80% of them use SMS for handling brochure requests” says Carrigan. “Companies see a dramatic uplift in response as a result of providing consumers with a quick and easy way of responding from anywhere, at anytime. Not only does this capture consumer interest at the very point they see the advertising, but automating the process provides high quality data capture, while significantly reducing handling costs.”

Peugeot 207 - Using Mobile to Drive Test Drives

When Peugeot launched the 207 in the summer of 2006, it was the company’s biggest launch in 10 years, so the pressure was on to get it right. The company had used mobile for the first time for the launch of the 1007 and the 107 in 2005, and subsequently for the launch of the 407, the 407 Coupe and the 307. But for the 207 launch, it decided to take things further.
The company was looking for close engagement with the consumer, and deep integration with other channels. In order to encourage consumers to interact with the brand, Peugeot launched a TV, print, outdoor and online ad campaign encouraging readers to text ‘24’ to 60222 in order to get a 24-hour test drive.
Peugeot’s retained mobile agency, Marvellous Mobile, created a 207 WAP site that was designed to deliver on the creative expectations of the above-the-line and outdoor advertising. There were two versions of the sites, one graphics-heavy, the other graphics-light for users wanting a faster experience. And while the TV campaign was designed to sell the style of the 207, the WAP site was charged with the substance. Finance options demonstrated exactly how much the monthly payments would come to, and a car configurator, similar to those found on Internet sites, enabled consumers to configure the engine, interior and exterior colour of their car and download their design to share with friends and family.
“It can take three months from a consumer seeing a TV ad to deciding what car they want to buy” says Peugeot Marketing Manager, Kristian Cholmondeley. “With mobile, you can do it in 20 minutes. It’s a fantastic opportunity to catch consumers while they are caught up in the emotion of the TV ad.”
In addition to the WAP site, Marvellous also developed a Java brochure that reinforced the TV imagery, and that consumers could download and store on their phone to read at their convenience, and even forward to friends.
The campaign generated a considerable amount of data, including hard data on the number of visitors interactions with the campaign (visit to the WAP site, time spent, pages viewed); a soft poll on 50 of the visitors to the site to ask what they thought of it; sales data, providing a link with other marketing channels to compare where the people who bought a 207 came into the customer journey; and brand data, which enabled Peugeot to understand how mobile compares to other channels.
The results of the campaign were impressive. One in two people who interacted with the campaign ordered a test drive. One in five visited the WAP site, and one in eight ordered a brochure. The average dwell time on the WAP site was 20 pages. Interestingly, the conversion of a prospect from visiting the WAP site to downloading the JAVA brochure or booking a test drive was around 30% higher than for the Internet. Not surprisingly, Peugeot plans to use mobile as a key element in future launches.

Brisk Woos Consumers with Free Mobile Content

Pepsi-Lipton iced tea brand Brisk has recently launched the third phase of a mobile marketing initiative that enables consumers to access free mobile content from the brand’s website and download it to their handset. Powered by Addictive Mobility, the application offers free Brisk-branded ringtones and wallpapers to customers as an incentive to connect with the product.
Wallpapers designed for a variety of handsets were tailored to co-ordinate with the Brisk Iced Tea image, and ringtones, which encompass rap, reggae, house and Latin, were created specifically for the campaign. 
Earlier phases of the project included a Brisk contest which was co-branded with companies that represent the brand's lifestyle, such as Levi's, EMI, Warner, Universal Music and Microsoft Xbox. Users were also able to send free SMS text messages to any mobile in North America from the brisk website. The campaign has enabled the brand to create an opt-in database and generate a wealth of consumer insights.
"The mobile device is ideal for unlocking the value of the brand” says Addictive Mobility Mobile Director Nussar Ahmad. “Using a phased approach, brands can entertain existing consumers, gain new consumers, and ultimately, see a spike in sales."
Addictive Mobility plans on introducing new Brisk initiatives in 2007, including a content-rich WAP site, as well as video content and real-time streaming.

WAP Gift Aid First for Incentivated

Mobile agency Incentivated has developed a text message donation system for cancer charity Macmillan Cancer Support that enables members of the public to make one-off donations via SMS, then complete a Gift Aid declaration via the mobile Internet, enabling Macmillan to claim an additional 28% from HM Revenue and Customs. This is a first for the charity industry.
Once the donation has been made, a WAP Push message is sent to the donor, inviting them to go online to a Macmillan-branded Mobile Internet Gift Aid form, where they can confirm that they are a taxpayer.
“Unfortunately charities often miss out on this extra income because it is too expensive to process the paperwork on small donations” says Incentivated managing director Jonathan Bass. “The mobile channel automates this process, and removes the need for manual processing on the part of the charity. The fact that the Gift Aid form is available on the mobile handset immediately after the text donation has been made means that drop-off should be less than asking someone to go online via their PC.”
The Macmillan service used Incentivated’s ‘iris’ online mobile marketing platform. Donations can be made by texting one of four keywords, SUPPORT, NURSE, HELP or MACMILLAN to a premium rate shortcode, 85222, which then deducts £3 from the donor’s mobile. If the donor owns a pay-as-you-go phone, the credit is deducted immediately. For contract customers, the amount appears on their next bill. Donors can donate as many times as they like, and the confirmation text message they receive after donating explains how they can opt out of future text messages.
Additionally, Macmillan is adopting Incentivated’s ‘Ticket/Brochure Request by SMS’ service. The charity will use it at the end of each campaign to collect further information from donors, including their postal address, in order to send relevant information about the charity and its activities. Upon receipt of a text message containing the donor’s house number and postcode, Incentivated can resolve the full postal address, with reference to the Post Office’s PAF (Postcode Address File).
“This is all about interacting with our donors and communicating with them in a way that they prefer” says Macmillan Direct Marketing Campaign Manager, Kevin Kuklinski. “Text is ideal for this. Offering text-to-donate and Gift Aid via WAP will help us connect with more donors and will hopefully play an increasing part in our fundraising activities.”

Together, We’re Beautiful

Kathryn Stevenson, Commercial Director of rich media company PointRoll, considers the synergies that come from integrating mobile marketing and online in a campaign

In today’s new media environment, one of the most successful ways to communicate with consumers is by using less traditional mediums such as mobile marketing and online. According to recent research*, 57% of 18 to 34 year olds regularly interact with a company or brand via SMS from their mobile phone and 60% access mobile Internet content. Nearly two thirds of the UK population has broadband and 49% are regular users of the Internet. Statistics like these are hard to ignore. Brand marketers are recognising the increasing importance of both mediums and their effectiveness when integrated in a marketing campaign.
Mobile marketing is fast developing as a powerful channel to communicate with your audience. It not only targets the consumer directly, but also achieves a high level of interaction, as people never leave home without their mobile phones and rarely switch them off. The use of mobile marketing is also considered an effective communication tool for advertisers since it creates a personalised, one to one relationship between a brand and a consumer.

GSK Gets SMS Fever

When GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was looking for a way to achieve standout for its Flixonase spray hayfever remedy in a crowded marketplace, it turned to Vodafone Target to deliver an innovative b2b SMS campaign that produced great results.
The campaign targeted pharmacy assistants, the key interface between consumers and products. Using mobile as the communications channel,  Flixonase stayed front-of-mind for customer-facing assistants throughout the peak hayfever season.
Mobile was used in combination with direct mail and the GSK direct sales team. Pharmacy assistants were invited to sign up for a series of weekly SMS communications. After registering their postcodes, the pharmacy assistants received three Flixonase texts per week throughout the 10-week hayfever season.
On Mondays, they were sent a pollen forecast, predicting what levels of which allergenes to expect, using data from the Pollen Institute. Using the postcode data, each assistant received information relevant to their own area.
On Wednesdays, a quiz was sent out, with questions relating to hayfever and its treatment, with prizes on offer for the pharmacy. On Fridays, the assistants receive a text containing a useful fact about allergy prevention and treatment.
The results were highly encouraging. Well over 10% of the pharmacy assistants invited to register for the text campaign opted in to receive the messages. 50% of those who did responded to the quiz texts every week, and reaction to the campaign was extremely positive. Sales of Flixonase increased dramatically nationwide, and GSK were delighted with the way in which the mobile element of the cmnopaign connected the brand to its market. They are now looking at how mobile can add value to, and increase response from other campaigns.

Case Study - Mobile and Web Integration

Client: Walkers Snack Foods

Brand: Walkers Crisps

Agency: Sponge

‘Win with Walkers’ is the largest on-pack promotion ever run in the UK and Ireland, with over 600 million packets of crisps being distributed, offering consumers the chance to win one of over 8,700 iPod Minis. During September, Walkers gave away an iPod Mini every five minutes, with one a day on offer during October and November.
To win, consumers text in the unique code printed on each pack, and within 10 minutes, they receive a reply. The replies vary, and include music trivia; previous winners’ details (for authenticity); previous busy/quiet times (to improve the consumer’s chance of winning); and added-value Walkers content. The message database also handles erroneous entries such as incorrect codes or codes that have already been used.
The SMS campaign is being handled by mobile agency Sponge, which has supplied the software application to handle SMS entries, inbound and outbound messaging, the draws, and the processing of winners’ information.
Sponge was appointed by agency, The Big Kick, while a website and web entry has been created and hosted by digital agency, Graphico. SMS and web are fully integrated to display graphs on the www.winwithwalkers.com website, showing past entries by day, hour and five-minute slots, so that consumers can see the quietest and busiest times in order to improve their chances of winning.
The campaign has been supported by a £1.5 million advertising push, featuring ex-footballer Gary Lineker, and response to it has been excellent, with 5% of the population of Great Britain entering in September.
"These were unique users, not the same people putting in multiple entries" says Sponge Head of Marketing and PR, Lucy Wilkinson, while Debbie Simmons, Chairman of The Big Kick adds:
"Sponge have over-delivered on every aspect of this promotion. They have added value and have been very professional in how they have operated. I thoroughly recommend them."

www.spongegroup.com

www.winwithwalkers.com

More Case Studies:

Flytext - Orange Wednesdays. Read

Incentivated - Greater London Authority. Read

Case Study - Mobile as a Redemption Channel

Client: Orange

Brand: Orange Wednesdays

Agency: Flytxt

Since the end of the 1990s, Orange has invested a significant amount of marketing spend in associating its brand with the cinema, primarily through advertising and sponsorship. In spring 2004, the company sought to take this association further, with the launch of Orange Wednesdays, a three-year programme, offering Orange customers a 2-for-1 deal on any cinema ticket at any cinema nationwide, each Wednesday.

Case Study - Mobile as a Rich Data Collection Channel

Client: Unilever

Brand: Pot Noodle

Agency: Flytxt

In Summer 2005, Unilever brand Pot Noodle commissioned Flytxt to put together a mobile mechanic offering consumers the chance to win one of one million Pot Noodle horns. In addition, the campaign was also required to generate rich data on participating customers. Consumers who bought a winning pack had to text in their winning code number, together with their name, house number and postcode, from which Flytxt generated the complete address for the consumer’s confirmation.

Case Study - Using Mobile to Deliver Public Services More Efficiently

Client: Greater London Authority

Brand: Various initiatives

Agency: Incentivated

In February 2005, the Greater London Authority (GLA) put out a tender for a mobile marketing solution that could be used to deliver a number of initiatives targeting people living in London, as part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s e-Government initiative to make local authority services available to the public online.
The solution had to be capable of delivering and receiving images to and from mobile handsets. It also needed to include postcode and email address validation from a text message; a working location-based solution connected to the main networks; and a real-time online reporting tool, together with the skills to integrate seamlessly with a number of GLA databases.

Case Study - Mobile as a Ticketing Solution

Client: Tussaud’s Group

Brand: Alton Towers

Agency: Flytxt

In spring 2005, The Tussaud’s Group commissioned Flytxt to produce a mobile campaign to increase footfall to its Alton Towers theme park in May and June. The campaign centred on the park’s ‘Rita – Queen of Speed’ ride, which has been voted the most popular ride at Alton Towers in Guest Surveys.
The campaign offered consumers a 2-for-1 entry by responding via text to an ad broadcast on commercial radio. The cost to respond was 50p, in return for which the consumer received a unique M-ticket code number, which they simply presented at the theme park to claim their 2-for-1 entry.