Last week, Helen Keegan, MD and founder of mobile marketing agency, Beepmarketing, outlined the 20 key mobile marketing applications, and promised to look at each in more detail over the coming weeks. Here, then is the first part of this mammoth masterclass Text n Win

Ive had a really good response to my previous posting on the Top 20 Mobile Marketing Applications, so as promised, its time to start looking at each in a little more detail. First up, its text n win, or is that text n lose?
For the uninitiated, a text n win promotion is one which is usually advertised on a pack of something or other, like crisps or a drink, and the customer is invited to text in to a shortcode for a chance to win a prize.
This is a very convenient way to manage a competition or prize draw, and popular with consumers. The recent on-pack promotion by Walkers to text to win an iPod offered a prize draw every five minutes, and claims to be the biggest ever text n win promotion to date. Not only that, thought went into the reply (or lose) messages, to encourage repeat entry – these messages varied from music trivia, to free content, to details of the previous days winners. This avoided the campaign becoming a text n lose campaign. This successful campaign was run by Big Kick and Sponge.

Data issues
Text n win has been embraced enthusiastically by sales promotion agencies, as it means that not only do you not have to deal with sackloads of post, you also dont have the post-campaign data entry issues. Customers, by entering the competition, are giving you some of their data – i.e. their mobile number. Its up to you to collect any more data from the consumer if you need it.
Its also up to you as the marketer to make the lose messages engaging too, otherwise your campaign will end up being text n lose rather than text n win. This might be achieved by offering mobile content for lower-tier prizes, or by varying the replies, so that each time you enter, you get something slightly different, as shown in the Walkers case study. This makes it feel more personal and about you. Personal is a key concept in all things mobile. BeepMarketing has done this in the past for the likes of Fosters lager, Butt Ugly Martians and Tropicana ice lollies.
As a marketer, I think its also fascinating to identify repeat entries to competitions, as well as peak times, and down times, to help you work out more about your customers and plan your next campaign. And not only that, you can then use the data (subject to keeping within the EU Data Privacy regulations) to communicate with willing customers – something we do for brands like Tabasco. The data is collected via on-pack promotions, we keep it clean against the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) and then use text messaging to promote future campaigns to drive sales. We offer an opt-out as part of every campaign.
Now, that has to be better than delving into a sackload of mail to pick a winner doesnt it?
Helen Keegan

Copyright Helen Keegan 2005. All rights reserved.

Next time out, Helen will look at Voting and participation TV. To read more of Helens thoughts on mobile marketing, visit her blog.

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