MOBILE MARKETING TOP TREND
Creating Customized Communications That Are Interactive, Instant & Green
By Steven Kelley, MESSAGEbuzz.com CEO
"Text messaging is a great way to not only extend your reach, but connect in a personal way"
"Text messaging is a great way to not only extend your reach, but connect in a personal way at a trade show or business fair," explains Steven Kelley, MESSAGEbuzz CEO. "For example, an e-mail blast to your clients is important to announce your participation at a trade show or business fair. But those e-mails can often be forgotten by the time the show starts and you are competing with all the other exhibitors on the trade show floor. That is where text messaging comes in, sending out text messages to your contact list will not only remind them that you are a part of the show, but alert them to special promotions you have underway at your exhibit," added Kelley. "Texting is an instantaneous way to reach out and touch thousands with a few keystrokes. With MESSAGEbuzz's Web-based application, text campaigns can be sent to hundreds of people in mere minutes," said Kelley.
Cohn & Wolfe, an award-winning global agency known for creating, building, promoting and protecting some of the world's best known brands, chose MESSAGEbuzz.com to implement a text messaging campaign as part of a multi-channel marketing mix to build buzz and booth traffic at a major technology trade show. As part of a larger communications campaign, the account team in Cohn & Wolfe's San Francisco office developed a customized text-message promotion to draw attention to its client at the Macworld Exhibit Hall. Hundreds of show attendees opted in to take part in the digital sweepstakes to win one of the products being demonstrated on the exhibit floor. This successful show promotion is just one example of the way text can create a custom communication delivered to the right person at the right time. While traditional contests in the form of business card fish bowls and promotions were common on the trade show floor, the Cohn & Wolfe text message campaign reached hundreds of participants through their mobile devices in a fraction of the time. Interactive contests, digital sweepstakes, interactive games, text voting and digital coupons are just a few of the options available at MESSAGEbuzz to create a truly custom campaign.
Tony Obregon, Cohn & Wolfe's director of social media, believes text messaging and other mobile marketing campaigns are an effective and engaging way to reach consumers in an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace. "Text messaging is the preferred channel of communication for many consumers today, especially a younger demographic that's hard to reach via more traditional channels," Obregon explained. "Mobile marketing keeps this audience in contact with companies they admire in a way they prefer to communicate via mobile devices," he added. An expert in emerging media strategies, Obregon expects more firms to select text messaging in the future. "Technology is changing the way we deliver our clients' campaigns and mobile marketing is among those emerging applications," said Obregon.
"Mobile marketing and text messaging can be the most effective way to communicate with attendees before a show or business fair, and help build excitement about the event," added Kelley. "It can be cost-effective and a green marketing initiative too. Pamphlets and flyers are too expensive and difficult to integrate into a green business strategy. But text and mobile marketing is an eco-friendly solution that is becoming the preferred method of communication for many. More marketers and business owners are moving from brochures and cards to interactive, customized and green mobile marketing," explained Kelley.