| Youth Market Marketing: Flytxt: Wireless Marketing |
| Thursday, 03 April 2003 | |
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Worth Global Style Network (WGSN): 4th April 2003 - WGSN profiles UK wireless marketing company Flytxt and talks to Pamir Gelenbe, director of business development and company co-founder, about the do's and don'ts of running a successful SMS campaign. SMS marketing is currently all the rage and usage of the medium as a marketing tool has outgrown operators’ wildest dreams. Advertisers are investing in SMS marketing in a sales promotion context and media companies are now using SMS as one of their standard media channels for content delivery, marketing and advertising.Governed by the same principles that guide direct marketing and direct response advertisement, SMS marketing courts consumers for their attention and allows entry into a respectful, relevant and engaging interaction. Flytxt was set up in 2000 and is currently at the forefront of the wireless marketing industry in the UK. So far it has run over 250 mobile marketing campaigns in the UK, Europe and Worldwide on behalf of over 70 clients. A founding member and board member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which sets the standards by which companies within the sector operate, Flytxt is also a dedicated evangelist of permission-based communication – whereby a consumer actively opts-in to receive information, or be part of a targeted SMS campaign. Pamir Gelenbe, director of business development and company co-founder, explains: “Everything we do is permission-based and we always strive to obtain permission in the best possible way and we’ve used lots of media to do this. So far we haven’t done that much online acquisition, as offline media channels tend to be a lot more powerful – we’ve used billboards, TV, which has proved very successful, and also radio.” What is interesting and so exciting about mobile communication is that this is the first electronic or interactive channel, which reaches 80% of the population (including nearly 100% of the youth market). Even the internet is limited in its availability: some people have access, some people don’t and some people can only access once a week or even every once in a while. With the mobile channel you can access everyone at all times. By the same token what makes SMS marketing a novel and promising direct marketing medium is its unrivalled directness due to the very personal nature of the interaction and its heavy contextual dependency. “People tend to carry their mobiles with them at all times, making mobile communication a very powerful relationship channel. It allows you to talk to people in a very time-sensitive way and at any time during the day. If you have the permission and the ability to establish this communication, you actually have access to something that has a significant impact, because people read their messages. Unlike email, plagued with spam, there is a real cost to sending mobile messages, which deters spamming,” says Gelenbe In Europe SMS is the still pre-eminent channel because it’s the one that the majority of people currently have and use. However SMS is just the beginning: as we enter a new era of multimedia messaging, companies such as Flytxt are focusing on wireless marketing and communication as a whole. Sha mail, an MMS media-rich format currently big in Japan, will eventually be available in the UK and, as the new colour phones are filtering into the market, is tipped to be huge in the near future. This opens up many more opportunities for brands to communicate with the consumer in increasingly diverse and entertaining ways. SMS is currently limited to a black and white format and a mere 160 characters, meaning that to date brands have had to be extremely innovative with campaigns. However, even as we move into MMS the main message will continue to be one of providing added value to the consumer, achieved through offering, games, logos, ring tones, coupons, sponsored content, or even location-based information." One of the other interesting things that people have talked about for a while now is the ability to pinpoint people’s location in real time through their mobile. It means there is the possibility to offer general location-based information such as directory services, which of course has the potential for sponsorship. These things are in the process of becoming very popular at the moment,” says Gelenbe. SMS at its best works to create healthy brand/consumer relationships. Gelenbe explains: “What we’re seeing in the youth area is that there is a lot of opportunity for relationship marketing in the media space.” Brands can gather data on their consumers, track their texting habits in response to particular campaigns and therefore personalise responses to suit individuals. It is this personalisation of campaigns based on consumer behaviour that is signalling the way forward, allowing for loyalty and reward-tailored campaigns. Text clubs are also a valuable way of creating databases and building relations. The Flytxt-engineered Kiss FM Hey Sexy or Smash Hits Poptext club are both successful examples of this. They work by rewarding members with gossip, offers and competitions. However, while seemingly youth-led, it is in fact the over-50s market (or silver texters) that are proving to be the current growth area. “If you look at texting today, the youth market is pretty much saturated with texting – not as in advertising texting but as in peer-to-peer texting. Youths send around 5-10 texts a day on average. That will grow, certainly, but it won’t grow massively, whereas there is really a lot of opportunity with the older generations that haven’t quite taken this so enthusiastically. A lot of parents or grandparents are learning to text because they find it one of the most convenient ways of keeping in touch with their children or grandchildren,” says Gelenbe. A powerful viral tool, with potential for valuable database collection and effective means of reaching your consumers direct and in real time, brands are beginning to understand how they can harness the medium and run with it. SMS campaigns: Flytxt runs through the do's and don'ts All-important factors, which should to be taken into account when running an SMS campaign: * Firstly establish whether SMS is a relevant channel of communication for your product/service and your audience. Consult a wireless marketing agency or someone else experienced in the sector to provide an analysis on whether SMS has a part to play in your campaign. * It is important to choose a reliable SMS supplier. Ensure the company you choose to work with supports both the creative and technical aspects of wireless marketing campaigns in-house. Check it has the capabilities to design, implement and track campaigns. Having these elements under the same roof will guarantee the smooth implementation of time-sensitive and targeted campaigns. * Decide whether to recruit campaign participants through offline media such as print, radio or TV or to use an opt-in database. Unless you already have an opt-in database, your other media activities and time restrictions will be the deciding factors between these two options. * Permission is key. Consumers have to feel that they are in control of the dialogue at any point in time. A successful dialogue, in any situation, is based on the willingness of both parties to engage in it. The same stands true for SMS. Mobile phones are very personal devices and a mobile phone number can either be a long-term asset or a quick route to a potentially angry customer. * If you are looking to buy a third-party database, ensure that the users are not just opted-in, but properly managed members. Important questions to ask the database owner include: What have users opted in to? How easily can they opt out? How often do they get information? How relevant is it for them? * When embarking on the design of your campaign ensure that you take advantage of the strengths of the medium. And, whatever you are proposing to consumers should be fun, engaging and relevant. * Where relevant, provide time-sensitive content: remember that information can get to people in a matter of minutes. Each message has the potential to be personalised. Campaigns have to deliver value, be relevant to the consumer or at least be entertaining. No one is interested in a blunt, eat/drink/buy more message. * Each time you communicate with your database you have the potential to build another level of relevance into your communication because you will know more about them. Ensure that you take advantage of this. Interactivity is another strength of the medium, as it allows for true dialogue. This will also give you the opportunity of capturing valuable demographic information and will build a loyal database of satisfied customers. * Interactivity is also one of the key challenges. If you choose to open this channel of communication to your customers, it is not something that can be then closed. What you discover from receiving feedback and questions from your customers might be quite revealing and you certainly have to be ready to continue the dialogue on and one-to-one basis. * Test and learn: SMS allows immediate tracking, so you can test the response rates of different channels of communication and different mechanics. Be ready to adapt in real time. * The end of the campaign is just the beginning of a long-term relationship. Don’t just leave it there. * Finally, give your campaign participants a reason to be your ambassadors. If your content is relevant and exclusive, your customers will share messages with friends and family, creating a viral effect. Imaginative and value adding SMS campaigns can reward the best ambassadors. A selection of youth-focused Flytxt case studies Puma Puma and Offspring, the sneaker gurus, together with Flytxt launched the Christmas Cracker mobile marketing campaign in December 2002. Objectives were to create a fun promotion that consumers would enjoy, drive footfall into Offspring stores, build an opt-in database of sneaker buyers to be used for future promotions and drive sales during the peak Christmas shopping season The Campaign: consumers were invited to text in to promotional leaflets, to pull a Christmas Cracker with Puma and Offspring, to get the chance to win prizes and instant discounts on sneakers. At the end of the promotion each player received a message asking if Puma and/or Offspring could send them news of future Puma and/or Offspring SMS promotions and offers from time to time. Reebok The objectives of the campaign were as a data capture exercise linked to a digital version of a Reebok TV ad campaign. Consumers registered their name, email address and mobile phone number and were then invited to take part in SMS interactive quizzes, with the chance to win prizes by answering correctly. The campaign was also used to drive consumers to Reebok websites in search of the answers to the quiz questions. The target market for the campaign is 15-24-year-old-males reached using a combination of TV, the web and SMS. Stefan Bardega, head of strategy at media agency Mediaedge, explains the campaign objective goes beyond just selling more shoes. "The watchword for this campaign is 'connectivity'," says Bardega. "We want to learn more about how consumers are prepared to interact with the brand, and how much they will give away. What is the trade-off between them giving away personal information and Reebok giving away prizes in return?" Smash Hits The Smash Hits SMS Poptext Club has an opt-in database of loyal members, who trust the Smash Hits brand. Research shows that: 91% feel that the Poptext club shows that Smash Hits really cares about its readers 77% cited the Poptext club as one of the reasons why they buy the magazine 85% look forward to receiving all messages from the Poptext Club 67% believe that the Poptext Club is an important part of Smash Hits The success of the campaign to date is due to members being rewarded regularly with exclusive gossip, offers and competitions, as well as being given the option to optout at any time. Flytxt 5-15 Cromer Street London WC1H 8LS This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Tel: +44 (0) 20 7841 6400 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7841 6444 © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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