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.

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.

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.

The Texting Teen Phenomenon

It’s no secret that text messaging is a favorite pastime among teens. In fact, just about every middle or high school age student I’ve encountered recently has had their eyes glued to their mobile devices and thumbs on the keypad.

I came across a study the other day that had some pretty interesting statistics about just how much SMS plays a part in the lives of teens.

Among other findings, the survey showed found that 72% of teen cell phone users are texters.

Below is a visual that gives a quick idea of just how teens are using their mobile phones.

Over half of the teens in the above chart (click to enlarge) are sending daily texts – and about 1 in 10 send over 200 per day! If you take hours spent sleeping in to account, that’s a pretty impressive feat.

And if you checked out MediaPost today, you may have read about the $216 Billion buying power of teens.

Companies targeting teens would be remiss to ignore these irrefutable facts, and should seriously consider a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy that reaches these incredibly valuable consumers on the device that is central to the way they approach the world: the mobile phone.

To find out more about how to use SMS to target these texting teens, shoot me an email – msilk@waterfallmobile.com.

Send a Text to Get Your Next Conference Pass

This Wednesday, the Mobile Meets Entertainment Summit will be taking place in San Francisco. The conference is a one-day event focused on the emerging market opportunities for mobile professionals.

Like most conferences, one-day passes are available online. But the MME Summit is doing something interesting with one of our partners, Billing Revolution, and is utilizing the Msgme platform in a simple yet effective way.

If you visit the MME site, you will see a CTA on the right hand side about registering via mobile by texting MME2010 to 67463. Those who choose to text in receive the following message, which directs users to a mobile optimized conference signup page.

This sort of combined offering is a simple and smart use of mobile, and one that can easily be set up for conferences of all sizes. As we all know: the easier you make it for people to get the cash register, the better the results.

Stopping the Wild Horse Roundups During Derby Weekend

This past weekend, horse enthusiasts from around the world saw billboards urging them to “Stop Wild Horse Roundups” as they arrived in Kentucky for the much loved Kentucky Derby.

The campaign is a bid to save America’s iconic mustangs, which are being threatened by a federal policy that rounds them up by the thousands off the Western range and stockpiles them in government holding facilities in the Midwest.

“Stop Wild Horse Roundups” garnered some notable press attention prior to derby weekend.  Here is some of the recent coverage:

• Sierra Club
• Best Friends
• The San Diego Union-Tribune
• TerriFarley.com
• 91Mobiles

Derby goers texted MUSTANG to 44144 (Message and data rates may apply) to join the effort to save wild horses by asking Congress to suspend The Bureau of Land Management’s cruel wild horse roundups.  Texters were sent a URL to get more information on sending a letter to Congress to stop funding for the practice.

The billboards are sponsored on behalf of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) by coalition partners Return to Freedom’s American Wild Horse Sanctuary, Madeleine Pickens, The Cloud Foundation and Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue.

For more information you can also visit: http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/.

SMS To The Rescue

Mobile Marketer recently posted an article on how SMS is the only reliable channel during significant events.  The article takes a look at the spikes in traffic around significant events, such as the Chile earthquake and events like football games, elections or big holidays.

The findings are not shocking – but they are extremely interesting.  After looking at the SMS traffic patterns, the results are: SMS surges after and during big events (something Waterfall Mobile experienced with “The Cove” after the call-to-action for that very successful campaign was flashed onscreen during the Oscars).

So, why the surge?  Simply put, SMS is the best way to communicate in high-traffic times.  Many of those texters probably tried to place a call and couldn’t get through and then realized they could get in touch with loved ones via text.

As the writer, William Dudley of Sybase 365 explains:

Traffic channels have significantly more bandwidth than do the control channels, but control channels are not held up as long as traffic channels.

So when multiple calls are in progress, as when there is some event, the traffic channels are allocated. However, there is almost always control channel room for SMS traffic.

Even if there is no network capacity to deliver the message immediately, SMS messages are stored by the carrier’s SMSC, so when the network capacity is available, the message is then delivered.

The Mobile Marketer article noted when the earthquake hit Chile on February 27^th, SMS surged as much as ten times the normal rate for the first 24 hours.  Since that earthquake the SMS levels have remained double the normal rate and have surged even further around any aftershocks.

You can read the full article here.

I know in times where I’ve experienced earthquakes, placing a call immediately after was impossible – but SMS messages to family worked perfectly.   Have you had any similar experiences?

(Jason Saroyan is the AlertU business lead at Waterfall Mobile. For questions or inquiries regarding the AlertU emergency notification platform, please email him.)

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself

As the hype surrounding the iPad becomes deafening, it’s helpful to get some additional perspective from people who know the mobile space.

Over at AdWeek, Simon Vella makes some excellent points in his op-ed “Forget Apps, Text Still Reigns in Mobile.”

He notes:

Nearly every cellphone in the U.S. is capable of text messaging and because it’s used for regular personal communication, it’s always top of mind in terms of general daily use. By comparison, only 18 percent of all phones in the U.S. are smartphones. Further, Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones worldwide will account for just 23 percent of all new handsets sold per annum by 2013, hardly representing the mass market for general consumer goods and services.

And furthermore,

An October 2009 report from Strategy Analytics] showed only four to six mobile apps are used on a consistent basis. Brands need to be aware that there’s intense competition for share of the mobile phone desktop…This doesn’t leave a lot of room for grabbing consumer attention for those without big budgets or unique functionality. The reality is that most mobile apps are downloaded and discarded to the bin unless they’re compelling and have an ongoing mobile usefulness to them.

Elsewhere, Mobile Marketing Watch has used the AdWeek essay as a jumping off point to discuss the power and utility of SMS in the face of lots of noise.

Justin Montgomery notes in “Mobile Apps May be Reaching a Saturation Point, SMS Still Reigns Supreme”:

Mobile apps are dominated by the iPhone, with most development going toward its platform, which only represents 4% of the entire mobile market.  With such a frenzy for mobile apps, competition is rampant with very few avenues to distribute, apart from Apple’s App Store which has the most competition of all.  Because of it, the mobile app market is beginning to be saturated.  SMS, on the other hand, has none of these limiting attributes.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Marketers don’t want hype; they want to reach consumers with meaningful brand messages.  SMS, and targeted digital messaging, are powerful tools that can achieve exactly that.  While apps are fun to play around with, they’re expensive to make, offer questionable ROI, and the bulls eye is extremely small.

Pound for pound, SMS is the more effective and proven marketing channel.