Don’t Bet Against Mobile Coupons

Time and again, mobile coupon redemption rates have proven to be exceptional when employed as part of both pilot and real-world marketing programs.

As Mobile Marketer concisely put it,

According to Forrester Research, 30 percent of consumers would like to receive mobile coupons.

Redemption rates for mobile coupons range from 5 percent to 15 percent, which is much higher than typical print coupon rates of 1 percent or less.

Thus I’m a little puzzled by this survey from Honeywell and Harris Interactive – which our friends at eMarketer have teed up with the headline “Consumers Slow to Take Advantage of Mobile Coupons.”

Really?  According to the survey, 50% of 18-to-34 year-olds said they would be willing to share their mobile numbers with retailers in order to receive coupons.  To me that screams “green light.”

Maybe the issue is how the questions were phrased – something that has been shown to substantially impact polling in political campaigns.  Obviously, if you ask somebody if they want more advertising in their lives…they’ll probably say no.

But as this generation ages, digital life – specifically organizing one’s activities, shopping and entertainment through mobile devices – will become the norm.  In fact, it already has.  What’s lagging is significant participation by major brands, which will mature mobile coupons as an established marketing channel.

Mobile couponing can take several forms:

• 2D bar codes
• QR codes
• Text coupons
• Calls-to-action driving customers to mobile Internet sites
• Calls-to-action driving customers to mobile apps
• Mobile sites that are themselves coupons
• Mobile apps that are coupons
• ….Or some combination of all of the above

I’ve already moved past the question of “whether or not mobile coupons will catch on.”  They will.  Trust me.  The real horse race is which of these competing technologies, and factions within the ecosystem, will win the day to power mobile couponing and other marketing efforts for major brands.

Oh, and one last thing to watch out for –

The killer app that could permanently dispense with any confusion in this arena will be cloud-based “closed loop redemption systems.”  These systems will allow a retailer to redeem a coupon from any of the above listed channels within their cloud, and will also give retailers the opportunity to seamlessly push coupons out to multiple channels.

Happy couponing, everybody.

Activating Your Traditional Media

According to a recent study by the Newspaper Association of America, the newspaper is not dead just yet. This study, part of a series entitled “American Consumer Insights,” examined the impact newspaper advertising has on consumer shopping and spending patterns. Early results indicate:

• Nearly six in ten adults (59 percent) identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions
• 82 percent of those surveyed said they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising, including:

  - Clipping a coupon (61 percent)
  - Buying something (50 percent)
  - Visiting web sites to learn more (33 percent)
  - Trying something for the first time (27 percent)

• 73 percent of adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper inserts
• 82 percent have been spurred to action by a newspaper insert in the past month

And you know what? I’m all for it. In fact, I’m ready to fight for my good old Sunday paper. I’d like to keep it around for a while. Nothing beats coffee, breakfast, and that morning’s news on your doorstep.

Here’s the thing I don’t get. If you’re placing media in newspapers – which appears to still be an effective place to direct marketing dollars – why on earth wouldn’t you add a compelling mobile call to action to your ads?

A few reasons why this makes sense:

• Mobile permits you to measure the effectiveness of the medium directly, by measuring hits to your SMS prompt
• It creates direct interaction with your consumer, personalizes the exchange, and incentivizes them to act through coupons and premium offers

And perhaps most importantly,

• Mobile gets your target customer one step closer to making a purchase

In many conversations with traditional / old media advertisers, I’ve heard their #1 concern about placing SMS prompts in their print ads:  they’re worried about cannibalizing their own conversion rate.  And thus far that fear has kept many traditional advertisers out of the mobile mix.

My polite rebuttal?  If your mobile call to action is smart and strategically minded, then you’d be crazy to not at least give this medium a try.

Here’s a simple example:

Big Retailer X is announcing a sale on Tuesdays from 3-6 PM, one that is designed to get more bodies into the store during traditionally slow hours.  The company runs its normal ad in the Sunday paper to advertise the sale.

The following week, Big Retailer X adds one line of copy to the ad:

“For an extra 10% off, text RETAILER to 44144“

And what does Big Retailer X get by spending very little incremental dollars on a trial like this?

• Big Retailer X can determine how many of its customers are interested in mobile coupons
• They can build another marketing channel – one that directly communicates with customers
• They can drive some incremental bodies into the store
• They can also compare this channel to others, thus gaining an independent measure of marketing channel effectiveness

In other words, the marketing director at Big Retailer X would suddenly have lots more data to work with – data he or she could use to reach more potential customers and create more sales.

For only a few extra dollars, why wouldn’t you make your media dollars work harder for you?

Industry Case Study: Little Caesars Mobile Campaign Results in 62 % Opt-In

Campaign Background
Detroit-based Little Caesars Enterprises Inc. says it is the largest carry-out pizza chain in the world with restaurants on five continents. Little Caesars wanted to experiment with mobile marketing outreach and track and compare results against traditional marketing.

Campaign Objectives
Little Caesars wanted to create a mobile marketing sweepstakes and build a subscriber list of loyal customers for future marketing campaigns. The pizza chain also wanted to increase brand visibility during the economic downturn holiday season with consumers and lead them to retail outlets for special promotions and discounts.

Read more

Industry Case Study: Kroger’s Mobile Coupons

Campaign Overview
With the success of mobile coupons in Asia, Kroger Co., one of the largest retail food companies in the Unites States with 2, 2000 stores, wanted to provide its customers similar coupons and discounts with interactive mobile marketing campaigns.

Campaign Objective
Create mobile loyalty programs for Kroger customers and provide redeemable mobile coupons and discounts.

Marketing Tactics
The retailer created a Kroger Plus Card for shoppers to receive large discounts from major brands and select Kroger labeled products to their mobile device. The retailer decided to test its mobile coupon program in stores located in South Eastern states, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas. To sign up for coupons, Kroger shoppers need to go online to create and activate their account.

Read more

6 Effective Mobile Tactics, by Matt Silk

In a recent iMedia Connection article, Matt Silk, senior vice president, Waterfall Mobile, highlights effective mobile marketing tactics savvy retailers and marketers need to consider.

6 Effective Mobile Tactics
A Waterfall Mobile article by Matt Silk

To draw consumers into brick-and-mortar stores, you need to engage them — and no channel makes it easier than mobile. Here are a few methods that are proven to work.

Santa Claus should not text while driving his sleigh, but this holiday season, smart businesses should be focusing on mobile to drive results. Many retailers kicked off their holiday selling season on Black Friday by opening their doors before dawn and spending millions on advertising campaigns to publicize incredible deals at bargain-basement prices for one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Yet, despite heavy national TV, print and online pushes for the country’s biggest retailers, many major brick-and-mortar retailers have not begun to implement even the simplest forms of mobile marketing to expand engagement with their customers. They should take a cue from the few mobile-savvy retailers this holiday season.

Read more

Mobile Coupons: Awareness to Action

eMarketer.com

“Mobile coupons tie users from awareness to action.”

Marketers spend $15 billion dollars on coupons every year just in the US, and the economic downturn means consumers are likely to start looking for more discounts. With handset penetration north of 80% according to the Telecommunications Industry Association, the time for widespread mobile coupon usage may have come.

Many types of mobile coupons and several ways of using the offers sent to their phones. Consumers can send texts to codes for specific offers, access the service directly or get SMS alerts when new coupons become available. Also, targeted coupon code offers based on their location, age and gender, which can redeemed at the point of sale.

Msgme Campaign Spotlight: Alpine Meadows’ Mobile Snow Alerts

Alpine Enhances Resort Experience
For a second ski season, Lake Tahoe’s premiere winter resort destination Alpine Meadows Ski Resort has incorporated the interactivity of mobile into its multichannel marketing strategy. With the flexibility and immediacy of mobile, the resort improves its marketing reach, builds two-way relationships with consumers and enhances their ski resort experience.  Alpine’s exclusive mobile channel is powered by the interactive text and voice marketing platform, Msgme. The resort offers real-time mobile snow alerts, exclusive resort promotions, lift ticket coupons and discounts, on-mountain news and more.

Read more

Industry Case Study: The Great Guiness Pint Contest

Campaign Overview
Irish brewer Guinness launched The Great Guinness Pint Contest, an interactive mobile program meant to engage consumers with the brand in celebration of the company’s 250 anniversary.

Campaign Objective
Increase visibility and branding opportunities with an interactive and immediate  mobile marketing campaign to engage loyal customers.

Marketing Tactics
The customer loyalty program asked consumers at participating businesses (bars) to rate their pint of Guinness by mobile device. Each time consumers rate their pint they are entered into a sweepstakes to win a trip to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, during the company’s anniversary. The mobile contest call-to-action were included on marketing materials to be displayed in participating locations, included posters, table tents, coasters and rate card flyers. Consumers were directed to text the keyword Great to the promotion shortcode, then prompted to rate the pint of Guinness they received.

Analysis
Guinness coordinated mobile marketing efforts across traditional media placements and online promotions. Mobile campaign online metrics can be tracked, analyzed and adjusted in minutes.  Guinness’ marketing team kept the media messaging consistent between online and traditional media.

For more information on text and voice mobile marketing, please contact your account manager or sales@waterfallmobile.com.

Industry Case Study: Johnson & Johnson’s IVR Mobile Campaign

Campaign Overview
Pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson wanted to engage the mobile savvy youth market and promote its Acuvue contact lens brand.

Campaign Objective
Create a targeted mobile campaign that combines Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and mobile web (WAP) to build customer subscriber lists, extend its branding reach and enhance its two-way relationship with consumers.

Read more

Msgme Campaign Spotlight: Nebraska Book Company

Campaign Overview
Leading North American textbook distributor, Nebraska Book Company, Inc., (NBC) wanted to integrate mobile marketing into its national college bookstore marketing strategy.

Campaign Objectives
1. Provide NBC’s 280 college bookstores with mobile marketing solutions
2. Drive traffic to its retail locations and strategically increase sales
3. Appeal to a younger interactive mobile demographic
4. Build exclusive NBC mobile subscriber lists to send promotions and discounts

Read more