The Bloom Report

The Super Bowl is met with eager anticipation each year as tens of millions of viewers tune in for the game and an equal number watch for the commercials. Without a doubt, there is no other day of the year in which virtually the entire target audience of every marketer in the country has self assembled and is eager to digest five hours of marketing messages. According to Nielsen, 97.5 million people watched the 2008 Super Bowl and you can be sure that the vast majority had a mobile phone in their pocket.

Advertisers spend millions of dollars to produce their commercials and for air time, yet little has changed throughout the decades of advertising. It’s still a broadcast and with so much competition for awareness, expecting someone to remember the message hours or days later is wishful thinking for the majority that fail to cut through the clutter. A much more prudent and measurable execution is to allow people to engage with the message in real time and take an action that leads them towards the goals of the marketer.

The obvious vehicle for such an interaction is mobile and that’s why we are offering all advertisers running national television commercials the opportunity to integrate a mobile marketing campaign with their commercial during the 2009 Super Bowl.

BLUMO OFFERS FREE MOBILE MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO 2009 SUPER BOWL ADVERTISERS
Phoenix, AZ (December 22, 2008) – Blumo, a mobile marketing agency that serves leading consumer brands and advertising agencies, is offering a free mobile marketing campaign to advertisers in the 2009 Super Bowl. All advertisers airing a national commercial during the game are eligible and will receive free campaign development and execution services, only being responsible for messaging costs.

“In our current economic climate, marketing accountability is of utmost importance and there is no better way to quantify marketing activities in real-time than by a mobile interaction,” said Sean Bartlett, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Blumo. “Adding a mobile marketing element to Super Bowl ads is a tremendous opportunity to connect with consumers from all demographics and to take a broadcast message and make it truly engaging.”

The Blumo team will select one recipient of the free mobile marketing campaign based on eligible inquiries and will lead the advertiser and their agency through the complete development and execution of the campaign. The advertiser will be able to choose from mobile marketing services including; auto response, digital collateral, mobile coupons, ringtones, wallpapers, trivia, voting, text to win, store locators, or any custom mobile deliverable.

Advertisers and agencies can submit their inquiry to superbowl@blumo.com. Submissions must be received by January 7, 2009 and all eligible entries will receive a response with 24 hours.

Press release from PRWeb

Marketing

It’s no secret that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and thus a highly coveted market for brands. However, many do not know that Hispanics living in the U.S. also index far higher than the general population for their use of mobile. If you are a brand marketer and looking to engage a group expected to represent more than $1 trillion in consumer purchasing by the year 2012, consider the following:

• 73% of Hispanics in the U.S. have sent or received a text message, compare to 68% of blacks, and 53% of whites. Source - Pew Internet: March 2008 (page 3) (PDF)
• 78% of Hispanics have a mobile phone by the age of 17 & are more likely than other teens to use advanced mobile functions. Source - MultiMedia Intelligence: October 2008
• The median age of the U.S. Hispanic population (2006) was 27.4 years of age, in the sweet spot for mobile use and marketing. The general population has an average age of 36.4. Source - U.S. Census: May 2007

Demographics, Marketing

Brevity and timeliness are two of the primary reasons why the popularity of text messaging has exploded throughout the world. Brevity can also cause problems for marketers, as the 160 character limit can be quite restrictive when trying to communicate the features and benefits of a product or service.

In those instances where a longer format communication channel is preferred, text messaging can be a great way to initiate the dialog before transitioning to email. A few examples…

• Automotive TV Commercial: Some auto makers have begun limited tests of mobile with the usual execution being a basic SMS campaign or a WAP site featuring photos and high-level details about the car. A more compelling execution would be to include a text call to action in the TV commercial (also print, outdoor, etc.) that allows the consumer to text for information. The confirmation message thanks them for their interest and asks them to reply with their email address. Once given, you can send a nicely formatted HTML email with local dealer information (you know their location based on their mobile number) and even include a brochure attached as a PDF.

• Tradeshows: I once worked for a large company that had a policy of never taking collateral to a tradeshow. It was too costly and the fact is that most collateral gets tossed in the trash (hopefully recycling) before people head to the airport. While thousands of people flowed through the tradeshow booth, we would constantly have to explain the “no collateral” policy. Rather than disappointing prospective customers, it would have been much better if we could have told them to text “Product” to “Short Code” and that the brochure would be waiting for them in their email when they got back to the office. In addition to delivering collateral, this is a great way to track booth interaction and even close deals.

The possibilities are virtually endless for digital collateral executions and only limited by your imagination. Give it a try by sending “JOBS” to 25866.

Marketing

Times are tough and that means local businesses need to step up their marketing game as the fight for business in the ultra-competitive retail and restaurant business intensifies. While crafting a comprehensive marketing plan might seem overwhelming for a small business owner not well-versed in marketing, the answer can be quite simple. Consumers love coupons!

It’s no secret that people love to save a buck, but the numbers are pretty astounding.

• 87% of consumers prefer businesses that offer coupons.
• 89% are more likely to use coupons in a recession.
• 71% of households with a HHI of $75,000+ use coupons.

Another interesting point is that consumers aren’t compelled to try a new business because of a coupon, thus they prefer offers from trusted sources.

So…how do you offer your existing customers coupons in a cost effective and timely manner? Mobile coupons of course. Setting up a mobile coupon club is extremely simple and because there is no creative involved, is cheaper than email. In addition, the ability to send a mobile coupon in an instant can prove to be an important way to drive immediate business.

General, Marketing

As we’ve pointed out in the past, what separates mobile agencies from mobile platforms is the ability to solve business issues through marketing strategy and/or technological expertise. One such opportunity presented itself a couple of years ago when the event marketers that we work with brought to our attention that it would be very helpful to be able to administer a text-to-win while in the field.

Our team went to work and we are happy to report that a fully functioning tool was available in just a short period of time and has been in use ever since, we just haven’t talked about it to external audiences. As event marketers know, events and contests don’t always adhere to a strict timeline and thus scheduling a “hard” start and end time for contests proved rather cumbersome.

In designing the field administration process, it was paramount that the tool work 100% of the time and be easy to use. Check on both accounts. Here is how the process works once Blumo and the client have designed the campaign and readied it for activation.

Step 1: When the marketer wants to start the campaign they simply send a text message with the unique campaign ID and “start”.
Step 2: Once the contest has run its course, the marketer sends a text message with the unique campaign ID and “End”.
Step 3: To pick the winner, the marketer sends a text message with the unique campaign ID and “Win”.

Optional: At any point during the contest, the marketer can check the number of entries by sending a text message with the campaign ID and “Status”.

Depending on the requirements of the campaign, a series of automated messages are sent to…
• Non-winners: Thanks for playing…
• Winner: Details for collecting the prize
• Marketer: Mobile number of the winner to help facilitate the awarding of the prize

The tool is battle tested and has been successfully deployed at concerts, tradeshows, and numerous professional and collegiate sporting events.

General, Marketing

With the noise being made online by the news that Shaq is on twitter, I set out to create a comprehensive list of all professional athletes, teams, and organizations that are using the service to engage with their fans. After extensive research, here is the list in its entirety. Surely there must be more.

Athletes
Andy Murray: @andy_murray
Jerry Rice: @jerryrice
Lance Armstrong: @lancearmstrong
Chris Carmichael: Lance Armstrong’s coach @trainright
Johan Bruyneel: @johanbruyneel
Taylor Phinney: @taylorphinney
Ivan Basso: @ivanbasso
Josh Cox: @joshcoxrun
Wayne Gretzky: @wayne_gretzky
Natalie Gulbis: @natalie_gulbis
Kerry Rhodes: @kerryrhodes
Shaq: @The_Real_Shaq

Teams
Chicago Bulls: @chicagobulls
Detroit Pistons: @detpistons
Memphis Grizzlies: @memgrizz
Miami Heat: @mheat
Philadelphia 76ers: @sixers
Phoenix Suns: @phoenixsunsgirl
Portland Trailblazers: @pdxtrailblazers

Leagues/Organizations
LPGA Tour: @lpga
PGA Tour: @pgatour
USA Triathlon: @usatriathlon

General

As the economy craters and consumers and businesses tighten the grip on their respective wallets, we have enjoyed our best months ever. Why? It’s simple, mobile marketing provides a wealth of data and in the grand scheme of things, is a rounding error on a marketing budget.

Marketers are being asked to account for every dollar that goes out the door, but rarely are they able to provide such data. Branding is great, but from an ROI perspective, it’s pretty difficult to prove the worth of a TV spot or spread in a national magazine. However, if you add a mobile call-to-action to those same TV spots and print ads, you’ve got a mechanism to quantify your marketing expenditures.

We recently completed a campaign with a national brand in which a mobile call-to-action was added to “traditional” media. While we’ve done previous work with this client, mobile still plays a miniscule role in the overall marketing efforts. This particular effort had a singular goal, drive sales leads via a mobile call-to-action. Without the mobile call-to-action these same media placements were simply chalked up as “branding” and the marketing team had the nearly impossible goal of proving the worth of such placements, other than to rattle off “exposure to prospects” as justification. At the conclusion of the campaign, the numbers came in in-line with previous campaigns with the client and completely blew away similar online, print, and event metrics.

The client is now able to report back that a specific campaign resulted in X inquiries, X qualified leads, and X new customers. This was simply impossible in their pre-mobile marketing efforts and has served as a key tool in justifying their marketing expenditures.

General

A series of recent conversations had reinforced the fact that there is a great deal of confusion about what constitutes a mobile agency and how that differs from a mobile marketing platform.

Mobile Marketing Platform
Mobile marketing platforms are just that, platforms. These folks supply the underlying technology to deploy standard text messaging campaigns but provide NO value when it comes to campaign ideation or deploying custom campaigns. Unless the client or agency has a team of savvy mobile marketers with extensive experience in the space, odds are that they have no idea as to the power of mobile and what can be accomplished. Just want to send text alerts? Sure, a canned approach using an off-the-shelf platform may fit your needs, but if you are looking to deploy truly engaging mobile experiences, good luck.

NOTE: If you are a brand and your agency relies on a third party mobile partner, be sure to ask if the mobile partner maintains their own platform. If not, run the other way. The food chain would look like this: Client – Ad Agency – “Mobile Agency” – Mobile Platform Provider. This is a common occurrence and increases the risk to the client and agency, as the mobile agency doesn’t own the technology and if there is a problem, there is little or no recourse.

Mobile Marketing Agency
Mobile marketing agencies are just that, agencies. While there may not be print or interactive creative produced, mobile agencies can drive campaign ideation and help the advertiser maximize ROI, often developing ideas made possible by experience working with other clients and agencies.

However, not all mobile agencies are created equal. There are teams chasing the mobile marketing opportunity and branding themselves as agencies, but are really just resellers of a third party platform. They often lack strategy and execution experience and certainly aren’t going to know all of the technical details.

As an agency or brand marketer, you should demand that the provider of your mobile marketing campaigns be a firm that can help with both mobile strategy and executes using an in-house platform for execution. If not, you are relying on an unknown entity and the risk is simply too great.

General