The Bloom Report

There is a widely held, yet erroneous, belief that there are few, if any, metrics available as part of a mobile marketing program. The following list should provide you with a good overview of what any reputable mobile agency will provide you as part of a campaign.

Note: The following is specific to mobile marketing, not mobile advertising.

1. Total Interactions: Every message sent and received as part of a campaign is time stamped with the hour, minute, and second. This allows the advertiser to lay mobile interaction data over the media plan to see precisely how interactions are influenced by television commercials, radio spots, and other media. By using unique keywords for each media placement, it is easy to compare the relative effectiveness of each media placement.

2. Unique Participants: Unique users based on mobile phone number.

3. Average Requests: The average number of interactions per participant.

4. Maximum Requests per Day: Peak participation day of the campaign.

5. Average Requests per Day: Average number of interactions each day of the campaign.

6. Peak Requests per Person: Highest number of interactions from a single participant.

7. Repeats: Total number of users that participated more than once (text-to-win).

8. New Participant Percentage: Percentage of users engaging in their first interaction.

9. Returning Participant Percentage: Percentage of users engaging more than once.

10. Interactions by Location: City and state of participant based on mobile number.

11. Interactions by Mobile Carrier: Breakdown of participants based on mobile carrier.

12. Keyword Utilization: For campaigns with more than a single keyword, keyword utilization is a valuable tool when analyzing the performance of various media placements.

13. Bounce Rate: Percentage of people who take the first step (send a text in response to a call-to-action) in an SMS program, but fail to complete to opt-in, answer a follow-up question, etc.

In addition to those listed above, with a bit of integration or back-end analysis, coupon redemption, traffic sent to a mobile website, and click-to-call can all be tracked.

As part of my five state tour last week, I met with a dozen advertising agencies (and several prospective clients) about working together to offer mobile marketing to their respective clients. As we do quite a bit of work with agencies, these meetings are common and serve as a great opportunity to cover new strategies and technologies, as well as brainstorm about potential use cases. Towards the end of one meeting, one of the agency folks asked me why we refer to ourselves as an agency, as opposed to a mobile platform, technology company, etc.

We call ourselves an agency for several reasons:

1. We Add Value: It is rare that an agency or client comes to us with a marketing strategy that incorporates mobile and doesn’t need at least a little (usually a lot) tweaking. In addition to strategy, we often provide custom technology solutions to meet the exact needs of clients, rather than trying to fit their campaign into a narrowly defined technology platform.

2. We are Technology-neutral: Our philosophy is to recommend the execution that best fits with the goal of the campaign or program. Whether that means SMS, a mobile website, or application, we aren’t tied to a single solution.

3. We Provide Service: Every single client and partner agency has my mobile number and knows that they can feel comfortable contacting me day or night, seven days a week. While this may interrupt dinner on occasion, we realize that client campaigns are an important component of business and any questions or issues need to be addressed in real time.

Upon the announcement of our offer of a free mobile marketing campaign to any national advertiser during the 2009 Super Bowl, we were met with a great deal of interest from the press and a bit of scorn from our competitors. The motivation of the offer was to bring attention to the fact that national brands and their respective agencies still aren’t harnessing the power of mobile marketing as an activation mechanism for traditional media placements. It wasn’t to devalue the strategy and execution that goes into a mobile campaign, but rather to help serve as a catalyst to drive business for both advertisers and those of us in the industry.

Unfortunately, no brand marketers took advantage of our offer and after watching all of the Super Bowl commercials (twice), it appears that only Monster.com and the United Way integrated mobile into their television commercials during the biggest broadcast of the year. How is it that in these times of supposed focus on every expenditure, and trying to drive top line growth, that only two companies allowed consumers to engage with their $3 million (just media) commercials?

While there are countless commercials for which mobile would have been a natural addition, those that really missed the opportunity are:

• Hollywood: By my count, eleven movies were promoted during the game. Each featured a compelling trailer, but little to engage the viewer outside of a url. Quick, can you recall a single url for a movie that you saw during the Super Bowl? How about eleven? With the unlimited amount of digital assets, it is unthinkable that not a single movie studio made those available during the game. Also, with many movies still several months away, the ability to sign up for a text reminder would have been great.

• Avon: I almost came out of my chair when I watched the Avon spot and there was both a url and an 800 number, but no text call to action. Instead viewers were asked to visit www.sellavon.com or call 866-yes-avon. The only reason I know the above it that I wrote them down after I watched the commercials the second time for this post. A much cleaner execution would have asked viewers to text AVON to a short code and in the reply given the url, the 800 number, and the option to reply with their email address. Those who replied with an email would have been sent an HTML email with information about becoming part of the Avon sales team, how to sign up etc. The incremental cost of the mobile portion would have been insignificant.

• Pedigree Adoption Drive: Pedigree certainly caught the attention of viewers with their use of non-traditional pets, but the pay-off for their adoption program left a lot to be desired. With zero effort (literally) they could have asked views to text ADOPT to a short code to receive a free Pedigree Adoption Guide. Pedigree offers the guide on their website and by taking just one more step they could have turned a broadcast message into something useful for viewers with an interest in pet adoption.

So, here’s to a great 2009 and let’s just hope the advertisers in the 2010 Super Bowl start to think outside the box, if only just a bit.

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.

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.