Top 10 Mobile Marketing Campaigns

A fun and dynamic tour of top mobile campaigns was a highlight at yesterday's Mobile Marketing Forum. Eric Wheeler, Senior Partner with Ogilvy Interactive, and Gene Keenan, VP Mobile Services for Isobar International, shared a number of interesting campaigns put together by mobile marketers. These are interesting not only for brand promotion, but also for building community at any organization. In no particular order, here are the Top 10:

1. Nike ID. Nike erected a large, interactive billboard in Times Square. Passers-by could use their cell phones to text in their own custom design and receive a free pair of Nike IDs. In Wheeler and Keenan's video, individuals went nuts when they saw their own shoes posted live on the jumbotron in front of them. Though Nike gave away 3000 pairs of shoes in this promotion, I had the distinct impression that users were just as excited by their design on the billboard as they were by the free footwear. Flickr photo originally uploaded by Zerberus.
2. Dove 'Campaign for Real Beauty.' Dove erected a large billboard of a happy, fresh-looking older woman with a text-to-vote number so that pedestrians could choose between 'wrinkled' and 'wonderful.' The billboard's live ticker showed the combined results from both text and online voting.
3. Pontiac G6. This cameraphone promotion for the G6 encouraged consumers to look for G6es out on the street. By snapping a photo of a G6 and sending it in, a consumer was entered into a drawing to win $1,000,000.
4. American Express Wimbledon Sponsorship. The Wimbledon bleachers contain a captive audience of ticketholders. American Express promoted a contest in which any audience member could guess at the winners of the next day's event, and thereby be entered into a contest pool. Wheeler noted that those people who entered were much more likely to come back for all 14 days of the competition. (Or was it simply that those who had planned to attend all days were more likely to participate in the contest?) Even better than brand awareness, American Express had a meaningful number of card applications submitted as a direct result of consumer participation in the mobile contest.
5. Lenovo Mobile WAP. After its aquisition of the IBM PC business, Lenovo ran banner ads on the USA Today WAP site. The campaign's clickthrough rate of 6.6% was roughly double the industry average. Lenovo also had an impressive 487% lift in aided brand awareness among consumers who clicked through to the WAP site.
6. NBC 's Deal or No Deal. The Lucky Case Game integrates mobile into the TV show experience. Viewers can text in lucky case numbers and win cash prizes if there's a match. NBC has also had some success with its model wallpaper for mobile. The multiple products are not only a good way to access viewers on multiple screens, but also a way to generate additional revenue. According to  Wheeler, this mobile content revenue pays for the entire show's production - and as a result, all of the normal TV advertising becomes gravy.
7. Axe. The company's 'little black book' applet is a ringtone giveaway. Guys can choose tunes that they like, and then associate the tones with particular contacts (presumably, women) in their address books. This provides something of value to the consumer while reinforcing brand associations.
8. Nike Airmax. This aspirational advertising campaign shows athletes getting up early and doing their thing. The mobile campaign worked from this theme, enticing customers to sign up for a recorded wake-up call from a famous athlete such as Maria Sharapova. The campaign managers saw single users setting up multiple calls, and initially thought they were being used for crank calls - instead, they discovered that coaches and team managers were signing up their entire roster. This 8-week promotion exceeded its total target participation by 300% by the end of the first week alone.
9. Adidas QR Tagging. QR codes, which turn your phone into a bar code scanner, are everywhere in Japan and Korea. Adidas used these codes on retail merchandise tags and clothing imprints. Potential customers could take a photo of the color code on a sleeve, and the handset would then load up the manaufacturer';s WAP site. Over the course of the test run, 60,000 people participated in the Korean Adidas program, and Adidas had over 2,000,000 page views. (Note: It's up to carriers as to when this technology becomes available in the US.)
10. Snakes On a Plane. This inventive mobile promotion may be my personal favorite. Users can generated a customized voice call from Samuel L. Jackson. To set it up, go online to select the recipient's personal attributes from pull-down menus and submit the necessary phone numbers. As a recipient, it looks like the phone call is coming in from a friend, but when they pick it up, it's Mr. Jackson. This was phenomenally successful in raising movie buzz, with over 4,000,000 phone calls made during the core promotional period.

Although all of these programs were highly interactive, Keenan and Wheeler made it a point to mention that WAP banners, bought via CPM, are significant in driving people to promotions and loyalty programs.

Why are these campaigns worth notice? They integrated all or most of these key success factors:

• Relevant to the consumer
• Welcome invitation to participate
• Entertaining
• Drives a specific action
• Integrated where appropriate
• Connects what was previously disconnected
• Simplicity

The majority of Ogilvy's clients have mobile on the agenda for 2007. For many, the successful measurement against case studies and target success metrics supports moving from mobility testing to brand extension.

Comments

[JontheWayne]

What a great post, Christine! I think my favorite example from your list is the Lucky Case Game. I called it "a perfect marketing and business model" over on my blog simply because the idea will always work, even if text messaging becomes free and we all use a Google ad-supported cell phone service.

By the end of my post, I was even imagining a worldwide mobile game based on the business model behind NBC's Lucky Case game. Wouldn't that be interesting?

Thanks again for your great post.

[Heidi Richards]

Dear Christine,

I was surfing the web looking for direct marketing to women and your post came up. Thanks so much for the great list.

Have you have done any research on some of the great marketing to women campaigns in 2006? I know Dove and the Ford Freestyle are two great examples. I am looking for others. If so, please drop me a line. Or post here :).

I have subscribed to your blog and look forward to reading more of your posts.

Warmest regards,

Heidi Richards, Founder & CEO
The WECAI Network - "Helping women do business on and off the WEB."

[Christine Herron]

Hm, I haven't researched marketing campaigns that target women specifically. But if I see another's work, I'll link to it here.

[chris]

Hi Christine, i am currently doing a research on mobile marketing campaign and i came across one of the articles that you have posted. The article is about Adidas QR Tagging. Therefore, i would like to know more about the article. Is it possible for you to send me the full article to my e-mail?

Thanks a millions
chris

[Christine Herron]

This *is* the full article from my end, but you should definitely click through to the Wikipedia entry on QR codes - more info and links are available there.

[David Clemons]

These are really good uses of commercial applications using mobile technology. The forum you mention is a great place to meet the leaders of this mobile industry.

Each of these examples inspire me.

David Clemons
CEO / Founder
Push Mobile Media - a new media company.

[corde]

Hey, lovely post..I was just thinking of the Nike ID. My friend messaged her design and got a free pair. It was done for a lark but I started thinking about how easy it was from a cellphone, just text and voila!....So I wanted to do something different for my office’s seminar, I researched and came across Mozes. It helped me run an interactive text to screen voting system. The audience took to it like fish in water, most importantly my boss liked the idea. I think I’ll do more of it in the future.