What’s a Facebook Fan Worth?

In typical marketer fashion, marketers are always looking to tie a number to the value of social subscribers and what it can do for a brand.  e-Marketer recently had an interesting post on “What Brand Fans Are Worth.”  Digital consulting firm, Syncapse and research company, Hotspex recently came up with a formula to determine the value of a follower/fan.

The formula found that on average a Facebook fan is worth around $136.38 when it comes to the 20 biggest brands on the site (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pringles, Oreo, and Skittles).

The value was determined by looking at how much fans spend on the brands’ products, customer loyalty, recommendations and earned media.

The study found people spend twice as much on products they are Facebook fans of than non-fans spend on that product or brand.  In the world of loyalty programs, this is a very interesting number.

As you may know, customers that are part of loyalty programs visit stores twice as often as non-members and spend an average as four times a much as those that are not in the program.   This study makes a good case for why Facebook pages should be part of an overall loyalty program strategy.

Though, I would go even a step further to say not only should Facebook and other social sites be a part of the strategy but so should mobile.  After all, there are 270 million mobile phones in the US, and mobile provides one of the easiest and most direct ways to improve engagement with loyalty customers.

Case Study: Textbooks Are a Text Away

Chegg, an online textbook rental service that provides textbooks to more than 6,000 colleges and universities nationwide, needed a way to reach students on-the-go. The company turned to the power of text messaging and mobile web and made renting textbooks easier than ever before.

The company unveiled a new mobile SMS system for checking prices by looking up the book’s International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

By texting ISBN and the book’s number to 44144 students could receive the information on the book’s availability and cost to rent.  The students could then also join Chegg’s mobile subscriber list to receive coupons for discounts on future purchases.

Since launching the SMS campaign, Chegg has experienced remarkable growth. The service went from 269 users to more than 20,000 within a couple of months.

Overall, the campaign was a huge success and proved mobile is an excellent channel to stay connected with those sought after students on-the-go

You can download the full case study of the successful campaign and read more about it on CollegeNews.

Pizza Restaurants Do it Right!

Pizza chains have emerged as leaders in mobile marketing. The industry uses mobile solutions to maximize sales, drive consumers to place orders, and deliver initiatives that are on-brand and relevant to core customers.

Turns out there’s a lot to learn from pizza joints!

That’s why I recently wrote an article for QSR Magazine explaining how other restaurants can take the lead from pizza chains and get mobile marketing strategies moving. Simply adding text messaging can improve business and customer service – and can move the needle on sales.

In the article I discuss what pizza chains have done right and give tips on how other quick-serve restaurants can implement similar strategies.

Some of the mobile tips I suggest taking from pizza chains include:

• Allow SMS Ordering
• Start Sending Mobile Coupons
• Recommend Specials and New Items Via Text
• Have a Mobile Store Locator

You can read the full article here.

Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to discuss the topic further, or would like to hear more ways restaurant chains benefit by adopting digital messaging. As always, you can reach me at: msilk@waterfallmobile.com or on Twitter @WaterfallMobile.

Digital Messaging Enhances 2010 PromaxBDA Conference

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending PromaxBDA – The Conference 2010, which happened last week in downtown Los Angeles. For those who don’t know, PromaxBDA is the annual gathering of television promotions and marketing executives.  It was a fantastic event.

Waterfall Mobile provided mobile messaging services for PromaxBDA, and thus alerted the eclectic group of industry creatives about news and special offers. As a result, Waterfall’s Msgme platform was able to make the conference more interactive and engaging.

For example, the PromaxBDA organizers declared an impromptu “flash party” via text on Wednesday night – and backed it up with a $5,000 bar tab! Within moments the previously empty bar was swarmed with conference-goers, all of whom had either gotten a text or heard about the open bar from somebody in the know.

Elsewhere during the conference, I was in a client lunch when another text came through with a special offer for PromaxBDA mobile subscribers. Sugar Ray Leonard, who was being honored at PromaxBDA, was available for an exclusive meet and greet with those attendees who had joined the mobile list! I couldn’t get away to rub elbows with the champ – but I certainly appreciated the opportunity.

Other things I especially liked about PromaxBDA:

• Learning. Attendees at PromaxBDA were actually there to learn – about social media, about new promotional and marketing tactics, about what’s next.  It made for a genuinely interesting and even (dare I say) inspirational event.

• Honesty. JD Roth, executive producer of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC (and winner of a PromaxBDA Brand Builder award) admitted during a panel that the show has taken product integration a step too far. He also said brand visibility would be scaled back when the show returns next fall. Always refreshing to hear people tell it like it is!

• Icons. Larry King interviewed with PromaxBDA Lifetime Award honoree Hugh Hefner, and it was something to see: two legends taking the stage and talking shop. Also notable: Hef mentioned Twitter twice! If an 82 year old knows about digital messaging and social media, I’d say that’s pervasive, wouldn’t you?

• Foresight. I was extremely impressed by incoming PromaxBDA co-chairman Lisa Gregorian (Warner Bros. Television Group) and her panel on the changing face of the television viewing audience. Killer data point: 70% of the TV audience will be comprised of millenials by 2014. That means delivering content to users not just over the airwaves but online, mobile, DVR, and all the rest. Extremely refreshing to hear so-called “old media” leaders with such a command of what’s coming next, and the fact that those people have a business strategy to reflect our changing times.

• Inspiration. I was blown away by the commercials and other video content on display at the PromaxBDA “State of our Art” event, which collects the best and most ground-breaking ad and promo content of the year. Some favorites: Budweiser channeling The Beatles; The Beatles themselves starring in the opening animation from The Beatles: Rock Band; this great short piece on the nature of creativity itself; and a show-stopper from French broadcaster Canal+ (stick it out to the end – it’s not what you think!).

Here’s one obvious thing that PromaxBDA can improve for next year. Despite all the digital initiatives happening throughout the event, comment cards in the session rooms stick out like a sore thumb. In an effort to go green, Promax has phased out bottled water – but getting rid of all that paper would be greener still, not to mention more efficient. Mobile messaging does a superior job, and can power commenting in real-time. Maybe next year…

Oh, and I have to give a shout out to our new friends at Wiredrive. They interviewed yours truly for a video compilation site the company is putting together featuring other PromaxBDA speakers and presenters. We’ll link to that video here as soon as it’s posted.

Multichannel Retailers Upgrade – But Where’s the Mobile?

eMarketer recently posted results from a Multichannel Merchant survey titled “Outlook 2010: E-Commerce.”  The study found that two-thirds of multichannel retailers are redesigning websites to update the site’s interfaces and to improve search engine optimization.

Retailers are also eager to add social media tools, videos, recommendations and forums – but they are not looking towards mobile.

After all of the statistical evidence lined up behind the effectiveness of mobile marketing, one question comes to mind. Why not?

Of the options available to marketers, adding mobile is one of the cheapest and easiest channels to activate in an overall marketing campaign.  Of course retailers should be updating their websites and getting active in social media, because upgrading the entire marketing mix is a prudent move. But forgetting mobile is a critical error.

Four out of Five US multichannel retailers said they were not using any mobile commerce, with only 6.5% saying they have a mobile site.

Heads up, retailers – companies are having successes in mobile, either by utilizing coupons or driving customers into stores on their “down days” with text deals.  So what exactly are you waiting for?

Trendy retailer, Planet Funk turned to mobile coupons and experienced 377% ROI.  Target is now scanning barcodes from customer’s phones at check out.  Best Buy is getting more aggressive about SMS campaigns and mobile applications, as well as, refreshing its mobile website.

Forrester recently released their “US Interactive Marketing Forecast” for 2009-2014 and predicted over the next several years mobile marketing will grow by 27 percent.   The analyst attributed the continued mobile growth to the increase in mobile data usage, continued development of mobile applications and mobile maturing as a marketing medium.

The report didn’t even account for the recent surge in mobile internet usage. According to a Quantcast Mobile Trends Report mobile web usage grew 110 percent in the U.S. last year and 148 percent worldwide.

Mobile provides a hugely effective way to engage with consumers and drive sales.  Not having a mobile plan essentially amounts to retailers leaving money on the table and getting left behind.

You can read eMarketer’s full post here.

Leave a (Text) Message at the Tone

This isn’t our normal thought provoking blog post, but I thought it was worth a quick mention.

Has anyone checked out Radio Shack’s new commercial with Lance Armstrong?  Maybe it is because I have SMS on the brain 24X7, but I completely agree with Lance here.

Checking voicemail is always a pain, but the worst is when someone leaves a two minute message including all of the details you would have gone through in an actual phone conversation.  By the end of the message you usually have to call the person anyway to clarify the details, or (at minimum) listen to the voicemail a second time.

I would much rather someone shoot over a “Call me” text and we can jump on the phone and save both of us a little time.

Am I alone here? Let’s have a vote with the Mobile Demystified readers and I will post the results back here in a week.  Text VMAIL to 44144 to tell us your thoughts.

A Case Study in Digital Activism

As readers of this blog already know, Waterfall Mobile worked with Participant Media/TakePart – the studio behind terrific, socially relevant films like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Syriana,” and “Good Night, And Good Luck” – to create a mobile activism campaign for the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.”

The campaign was and continues to be a huge success, and Waterfall Mobile’s work with “The Cove” is a great example of converting viewer interest into social action.  That’s why we’re going to share the full case study with Mobile Demystified readers.

The campaign objectives included:

• Build a mobile subscriber list
• Engage viewers before they leave the theater
• Get people to sign a petition in support of closing the cove in Japan
• Stop the slaughtering of more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises
• Prove mobile to be a viable option in driving activism

The highlights of the successful campaign include:

• High conversion rate during the first weekend of domestic release with a 9 percent opt-in rate of moviegoers
• Adding tens of thousands of subscribers to its mobile list (and it’s still growing)
• Proving mobile is a viable platform for TakePart/Participant Media to get its messages out

It’s quite a tale, and you can download the full case study here.

And if you’d like to learn how you can help the cause, visit http://www.takepart.com/thecove/ or text DOLPHIN to 44144.

To The PromaxBDA Conference We Go

PromaxBDA: The Conference 2010 is coming up next week in Los Angeles from June 22-24.  And Waterfall Mobile will be there.

PromaxBDA is the world’s largest entertainment marketing, promotion and design event.  It brings together the world’s leading creative and strategic marketing professionals for dialogue, debate and discussion about the international business of television marketing, promotion and design.

I’m really excited about the “Inventions in the New Age of Engagement” panel.  It’s a conversation that will cover inventive, cutting edge and exciting campaigns that extend the reach of television brands.

Also looking forward to hearing Rishad Tobaccowala, renowned futurist and media anthropologist, discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the media marketing, digital and entertainment industries in the coming years.

But the most exciting to me is that Waterfall Mobile will be providing real-time text updates to conference goers.  If you are attending, text PromaxBDA to 44144 to receive instant updates on your mobile device.  The conference organizers have even promised a surprise or two for their mobile friends.

It’s sure to be a great event.  You can find the full agenda here and register here.

And as always, feel free to reach out if you want to meet up.  You can reach me at msilk@waterfallmobile.com.

We Love Video Games!

A few weeks ago we highlighted an innovative digital campaign around Tom Clancy’s “Splinter Cell: Conviction” that Waterfall Mobile powered for our clients at Ubisoft – a campaign, by the way, that was extremely successful. The “Splinter Cell” initiative was one of the first interactive campaigns to use mobile as a means of giving away free in-game content to players.

The games publisher recently launched another mobile campaign this time for “The Forgotten Sands,” the latest installment of its “Prince of Persia” franchise. Gamers can text PRINCE to 44144 to receive a free skin of the Prince’s brother, Malik (Standard message and data rates may apply). The campaign has already snagged the attention of top video game news sites like Kotaku and Gaming Today.

As with the “Splinter Cell” campaign, Ubisoft is once again rewarding its loyal customers by providing them with exclusive in-game content for free. And its customers are returning the favor by further engaging with the brand.

It’s very exciting for us to be a part of these campaigns for many reasons.

First, we love to see people giving customers content they want in a way that really helps a brand engage its loyal consumers.

Second, because – as you know or could probably guess – the video game industry’s traditional targets are people that love technology. Campaigns aimed at tech-savvy audiences have been translating to significant mobile engagement. We love to see that!

And last but not least, GamesBeat recently estimated the video game industry to hit $70 billion a year by 2015, with growth of 16 percent over the next five years. (The report credits the increase to the growth in console, portable, PC and online video games). That’s exciting news, and we really look forward to helping companies in the interactive industry connect with consumers as the business continues to grow.

Technology Worth Waiting For

Last week the Washington Post highlighted an excellent use of SMS. Reston Hospital in Virginia uses text messaging to keep emergency room patients updated on how long the wait times are.

Anyone who has ever been to an emergency room knows it can be a very frustrating experience. Nobody, and especially not anybody who needs medical attention, likes sitting in a waiting area for hours before getting the help they need. By simply adding this SMS service, the hospital has taken the guesswork out of how long a patient should expect to wait for care.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the average hospital ER wait time is 55 minutes – up from 38 minutes just 10 years ago.

Reston has cause to boast in this area: its wait times average just 23 minutes.

The hospital updates its wait times every 30 minutes to keep the information fresh.  By simply adding this text message service, the Reston Hospital made the ER more patient-friendly. People can text ER to 23000 and receive a reply text with the expected wait time (message and data rates may apply).

You can also check out the hospital’s wait times online at: http://www.restonhospital.com.

The service brings a new level of patient care and customer service to emergency rooms.  Kudos to Reston Hospital for being the first hospital in its area to offer this service.

Important note: according to Reston this service is designed for those with minor medical issues. Anyone with chest pains or other life-threatening issues should call 911.

You can read more about the service here.