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Brands leveraging mobile to get measurable results: ad:tech panel

Big brands are seeing significant lift and measurable results by integrating mobile into their existing media mix.

For example, mobile SMS search and answers services result in an 83 percent satisfaction rate, habitual use of at least once a day and a new user every four seconds, according to ChaCha. The company discussed this at a session at ad:tech New York titled, "Making Mobile Work -- How Obama, McDonald's and Coke Leveraged Mobile to Drive Measurable Results.

"There are various channels and many different options you have with mobile -- you can get hugely successful results, and it all comes down to aligning your strategy with whatever channel you're trying to use," Brad Bostic, cofounder/president of ChaCha. "Text messaging is by far the most popular, and it's the best place to reach folks because it has the largest reach.

"You can issue calls-to-action via WAP, or if a consumer searches for a place to get breakfast, you can send them a call to action, 'Check out a new special available at McDonald's, click to this WAP page' to drive behavior toward rich experiences," he said.

While there isn't a lot of WAP usage right now compared to the wired Internet, the Obama used the medium effectively to drive awareness and participation.

The Obama campaign ran a mobile blitz with banners and SMS ads in the top 10 contested states and used geo-targeting, click to call IVR/voice with a 'vote early' message and information.

The campaign also sent out mobile quizzes.

For example, an SMS message or WAP portal asking "How old is Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway?"

Consumers then received an answer "Warren Buffet is 75 years old, vote for change, reply OBAMA. You can vote early for Barack Obama now. Vote today! Find out how at 8889062262 or visit Voteforchange.com on your computer. Vote now!"

You don't necessarily have to break the bank, either. Obama created his mobile Web page for a paltry $7,000.

The results? The average CTR was more than 1.4 percent nationwide, and 2.1 percent in Wisconsin.

"This kind of engaging, trusting relationship built up via mobile channels can be very effective and valuable when an advertiser is trying to reach a given audience," Mr. Bostic said.

Directing a specific request to a dedicated WAP page gets results. It's best for tracking and evaluation purposes to have a specific page connected to each individual call to action.

Incentives are always key.

"Provide offers to entice consumers, because we have seen a lot of success from our Web site telling people, 'We have ability for you to log in and ask questions and receive answers,' let ting them know what the service is and how to use it to drive people to a given offer," Mr. Bostic said. "Point them to the WAP page, on the wired Web ask people if they have a phone capable of browsing, and drive them to the mobile Web.

"If you have both text messaging and WAP capabilities, then that gives you the entire base of people who have a mobile phone," he said. "We've found success aligning with other services and brands for answers powered by ChaCha, for example when working with a sports brand, we send out different offers aligned with sports.

"Get creative, because you have the opportunity to direct people to where you want them to be."

Coke used SMS advertising and an in-venue mobile marketing trivia game to engage consumers, specifically NASCAR fans around Brickyard 400 race.

NASCAR fans viewed the following call to action from ChaCha: "Jeff Gordon won the inaugural NASCAR in 1994, Reply C for MyCoke rewards. Click to sign up for MyCokeRewards points."

Those that responded got an answer to the question via SMS with additional geo-targeted offers.

The results were a 5.2 percent click-through rate.

"It made Coke feel like they were giving people an accountable, actionable offer, and it was right there in front of people on their mobile screen and not competing with 50 different links," Mr. Bostic said. "The Coke Zero brand is all about the 18-30 demographic, they wanted to reach that young people who are not watching TV as much as they're used to, they're all on social networks.

"Coke decided to reach people on their mobile phone, because texting is the hottest thing they do right now," he said. "Anyone who wants to reach that segment of population, which is very media resistant, you have to get to them on their mobile phone."

ChaCha focuses on the 18-25 demographic.

The final campaign discussed was when McDonald's reintroduced the Monopoly game with a big advertising blitz targeting that same hard-to-reach demographic.

The company used SMS interactive advertising with a 'click to interact with the Monopoly game' call to action.

Consumers received the following message from ChaCha: "The game is on NOW! Monopoly is back at McDonald's. Which music Diva got the party started while working as a McD's Crew person? Txt CREW2 to play and win!"

Consumers got a text with the answer, Pink, and were able to play the game via mobile.

The results were a 5.2 percent CTR.

"If you present offers and advertising to drive traffic, you can get really high response rates from SMS campaigns, and a combination of text messaging and WAP directing traffic is the most successful way to get into mobile," Mr. Bostic said. "It's a great way of converting people to come into the store, in this case, to play the game and buy products."