Mobile Marketing Techniques to Consider:

SMS Marketing

Dunkin’ Donuts utilized SMS couponing to introduce the launch of hot lattes. The company used this method to target young adults in the Boston area. The mobile coupon was for a $0.99 small hot latte. The coupon was sent to 7,500 high school and college age students who opted to receive the coupon. This was supported by Boston radio DJs on Thursday mornings that month, as well as 400,000 mobile banner ads on Boston-targeted mobile websites. 17% of the recipients either sent or showed the coupon to friends. This simple act of sharing helped generate more traffic and coupon redemption.

Mobile Gaming

Century 21 used Mobile Gaming to gain the attention of young home buyers. The initiative was a mobile game called “We City” where players would build their own city. The game was compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. The social gaming campaign was a success with 92% of We City players incorporating Century 21-branded structures into their virtual cities.

Geo-Location Applications

Angelo and Maxie’s, a New York steakhouse, used Foursquare to increase revenues. They ran a 45 day campaign where any entree purchase would receive a free dessert. During the campaign there were a total of 400 Checkins (ie: 400 entree purchases as a result of the campaign). 60% of the Checkins were first time purchases and revenues increased by 18%. 

Mobile Sites

According to ForSee, the Apple store and Amazon mobile sites were rated as the best mobile shopping sites online. The study was based on a 100 point scale where Apple received 85 points and Amazon received 84. What does this mean? It has been proven that satisfied mobile shoppers are 54% more likely to become loyal customers and re-purchase from the same company and twice as likely to reuse the mobile site.

The following info-graphic demonstrates how our society is changing and the new tendencies of today’s youth. There has been a steady increase over the past year in the amount of time teenagers spend on their mobile devices. This emphasizes the importance of companies having both an online and mobile presence.

courtesy of Prismcasino.com

Much of the power behind social gaming comes from convenience. As outlined above, 33% of gamers are admitting that they’ve decreased platform game-play in favor of social games. It’s easy to jump into a game of Words with Friends while your checking Facebook and chatting with friends, and once you’re hooked it becomes important to do well. Players care so much about these games that they’re willing to invest real money into their endeavors. That’s why forecasters expect $6 billion in virtual goods to be purchased by 2013.

So how do you harness this formula for your company?

1) Gamify your mobile App: If you’re looking to boost engagement with your company’s external mobile app, implement a bare-bones reward system where users are awarded for completing basic functions. While this won’t work for every application, it will work for most. The key to integration is not to introduce much (if any) new functionality. New functionality over complicates applications and discourages engagement. The only new functionality you should introduce is a process to redeem your rewards.

2) Gamify your PSN: Many companies are installing private social networks to foster cross departmental collaboration. If you have a PSN in-house, encourage your employees to engage by implementing a rewards system based on their productivity and contributions they make to important conversations. With internal reward systems like this, you can allow employees to redeem their virtual awards for real-world incentives. You want to know how your employees would solve issues from last quarter? Incentivize the conversation and you won’t be short on in-put.

3) Advertise through social gaming channels: Just because you’re company doesn’t have a digital asset like a mobile app or a PSN, doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the social gaming trend. As the above infographic illustrates, three out of five social gamers prefer to receive new product information through social games. So why not experiment by allocating a portion of your advertising budget toward social gaming channels?

The average social gamer spends 9.5 hours a week engaging in game play. Whether you’re gamifying your own platform or advertising on another’s, make sure social gaming is incorporated into your external and internal engagement strategies going foward.

A recent study estimates that Pinterest’s traffic more than tripled from September – December, 2011. This makes the online bulletin board service a notable new competitor in the social media ring.

The following infographic puts Pinterest’s recent growth into perspecitve.

As outline above, referral rates from Pinterest are now the 5th highest of any social network. This statistic alone should solidify Pinterest as a serious social network competitor because more referrals mean more traffic for companies online.

What does this mean for your company?

Just like Twitter and Facebook before it, many companies have been hopping on the Pinterest network with little idea of how to utilize this new social asset. Similar to its predecessors, there isn’t a cookie-cutter success strategy for companies looking to engage. Instead, companies have to be agile in their engagement tactics. Regardless of specifics, there is no doubt that Pinterest will benefit some businesses more than others in these early stages of growth.

For curious marketing professionals, it doesn’t take long to realize that the front page of Pinterest looks quite similar to a design magazine. Currently, the Pinterest network appears to favour fashion, design, nature and cuisine; where the appeal of glamorous images is easily “repined” and proliferated. Those companies that operate within these industries will find greater success in initial marketing efforts. However, for those operating outside of these industries, the lack of competing Pinterest content must be seen as an opportunity. It’s not often that a company has the chance to become first in their industry to a new social media market.

Nearly everyone has a brand that appeals to them. Even those who dislike materialism typically have one brand that they see as an exception – a brand that speaks to who they are, or who they want to be. As a brand-hating teen, I aligned myself with Forum snowboards. Not because I had a forum snowboard or liked their designs, but because I admired their ‘snowboard team.’ Forum’s team was highly talented and hosted one snowboarder, JP Walker, who epitomized cool. He was a relatively quiet, wildly progressive snowboarder with an admirable style. This style and progression were often forefront in the year’s best snowboard films. As a teen, these films were an inspiration to myself and my social group. They came to communicate the awesomeness of snowboarding and watching them created a craving (the jones) to ride, before every season. In this way, JP Walker elevated Forum snowboards’ brand for many young snowboarders during my youth.

Film Power

Coca-Cola’s involvement with this year’s Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab should come as no surprise; story and film are very powerful marketing tools. Together, they draw viewers attention to their  message and manipulate their emotions through audio visual stimulus. Not surprisingly, when films make a viewer laugh, the viewer develops an affinity toward the people and content in that film.

The snowboard films I watched as a young teen constructed a cool aura around Forum snowboards. By allowing me to observe a very talented snowboarder riding a Forum snowboard, I became hooked. If Coke were to move into film (outside of commercials), arguably one of the most effective marketing formulas available, would be the team structure.

Brand Longevity Through People & Team 

The power of people promoting product is unparalleled. This marketing tactic is so strong, that many celebrities turn down millions of dollars from large brands so that they can create their own, more profitable brand. Apply this people-power to a team and you create brand longevity. When JP Walker left Forum snowboards, I still liked the brand because, consciously, I thought they had other highly talented riders. Over a decade later, just 1 of 6 member’s is from the original team and I rarely snowboard anymore. Although the team is not the same and my environment has changed, as I wrote this article, I developed a desire to go by some Forum merchandise. That’s brand longevity working through the unconscious.

Team Coca-Cola

In 2011 Coca-Cola’s American tagline was ‘Life Begins Here’, an evolution of previous years’ ”Twist The Cap To Refreshment’ and ‘Open Happiness.’ These fun and rejuvenating taglines lend well to the Romantic Comedy strategy outlined in Part I of this blog post because the formulaic ‘attraction-issue-happy resolution’ used in these films, embodies the rejuvenation communicated in these taglines.

Similarly, the team structure outlined above, lends well to the first recommendation of the previous blog because along with ‘Pay[ing] for Clever,’ I recommended hiring unknown actors – blank slates. These actors carry no connections to past performances, allowing viewers to label them with the new rejuvenating experiences told through Coca-Cola’s film.

Hedge Your Bets

Using a team not only creates brand longevity, it hedges your bets. The leading man in the proposed Coca-Cola romantic comedy may not capture the hearts of every woman but perhaps some women will admire the leading lady, or perhaps they will relate to the best friend character. A cast, like a team, creates many possible connections. If this cast connects with the audience well enough, they could be used again and again – think of the Twilight film series.

In terms of social media, a cast/team means more digital channels; more character/actor Twitter streams and more Facebook fan pages – all unconsciously touting Coca-Cola.

It’s no secret that Hollywood is financially suffering at the hands of pirated downloads. Picture a future where studios begin to fold because of lost profits, who would fill consumer demand for films? Perhaps a company that doesn’t solely depend upon a film’s success for profit; perhaps a global giant like Coca-Cola. Yes, this is a stretch. Let’s call it a fuzzy predication, or better yet: a future case study.

Courtesy of thepoke.co.uk

Launching into a feature film would require a big risk, so testing the waters with a 10 minute film released on Youtube would be advisable. Here’s your simplified social media strategy to promote this 10 minute Coca-Cola film:

1) Pay for Clever: A safe testing genre for a gimmick like this is that of the ‘charming’ romantic comedy. However, unlike mainstream rom-coms that depend upon celebrity power, this 10 minute flick would have to be clever to spread virally. A clever idea is more likely to spread because the web thrives upon ‘new’ and  celebrity content already saturates the net. If both could be incorporated, excellent. If not, opt for intelligent writers and grab a couple of pretty actors out of their drama majors. The gimmick of a Coca-Cola film would garner enough of an initial audience without the need for big name celebrities.

2) Tweet the Title: Make the title relatively short and easy to say so that people can incorporate it into their tweets. As twitter evolves, it’s apparent that hash tags and trending topics don’t necessarily have to be short (One topic trending in Toronto as I write this is 32 characters long). Focus less on shortening and more on the rhythmic flow of the title like Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never”- easy to say, hard to forget.

3) Incorporate An SM Friendly Prank: The long-practiced travelling gnome prank was made popular by movies including Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie. Incorporating a light-hearted prank like this could make way for Facebook fan retention through a media sharing contest. In the case provided, users could upload their own travelling gnome pictures to Facebook and the winning prize could be semi open ended – ideally incorporating the proposed feature film if all goes well.

4) Cross Promote: With the vast amount of marketing channels and global reach of Coke, cross-promotion could inform a couple billion people in a day – a marketer’s dream.

Stay tuned! Check-out, “How Coca-Cola Could Move Into Film (Part II): The Team” this Saturday.