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Kawasaki, Gilt Groupe tie for fifth place: 2009 Mobile Marketer of the Year

Kawasaki and Gilt Groupe tied at fifth place for the 2009 Mobile Marketer of the Year award.

Based on the nominations received from readers and submissions from this publication's editorial team,  Mobile Marketer is convinced that Kawasaki and Gilt serve as role models for outstanding use of mobile advertising and marketing. Here is a breakdown of Kawasaki and Gilt?s work in the mobile space in 2009, Kawasaki first and then Gilt.

KAWASAKI
The power sports industry faced an extremely challenging 2009.

The economic meltdown and credit crisis, beginning in fall 2008, dealt a double blow to the industry.

Not only were consumers spending less, especially on non-essential items such as motorcycles and ATVs, but those who did want to buy faced an increasingly difficult time securing financing. Indeed, upwards of 75 percent of power sports unit purchases are financed.

The result? The industry saw an overall sales decline of more than 40 percent from the prior year.

Amidst this dramatic sales decline, Kawasaki sought to build sales for itself and their dealers, and ideally grow market share ? their primary overall marketing objective.

Objectives
Kawasaki?s objective was to drive overall unit sales at retail dealerships and to capture more than its fair share of power sports unit purchases during the program window.

Strategies
Kawasaki was very focused on engaging power sports enthusiasts with an exciting and compelling offer.
The company wanted to drive traffic to participating dealerships and reward customers with meaningful incentives.

Additionally, Kawasaki aimed to capture a qualified mobile database of power sports enthusiasts for future efforts.

The program
Kawasaki fielded its first fully-integrated marketing program ? the Kawasaki GreenLight Event ? with mobile marketing and new technology at its core.

The Kawasaki GreenLight Event gave power sports enthusiasts the ?green light? to visit the local dealer, check out the newest products and stay engaged with the brand all summer long.

In consumer messaging it also gave power sports enthusiasts the GreenLight for adrenaline, power and to dominate the road.

A mobile sweepstakes offered participants the chance to text, win and ride. By texting the keyword GREEN to a short code, participants could get a scrambled digital game piece on their mobile device.

Participants then had to take their mobile device to a participating dealership to decode the game piece and see if they won.

A mobile dealer locator, launched for the program, helped them find a dealer near them. Ten grand prizes offered winners their choice of Kawasaki vehicles, with more than 20,000 additional prizes.

The mobile sweepstakes ran from April through September.

Participants could get a new mobile game piece every week. Once entered, participants received monthly SMS updates on Kawasaki news, deals and exclusive content throughout the promotion, tailored to the products they were most interested in.

Kawasaki also provided participants with GreenLight Deals ? instant cash rebates on all Kawasaki products. The brand rewarded prospects that chose a Kawasaki vehicle.

The offers were deployed in two phases ? the first from April through June, and the second from July through September.

The most unique aspect of the program was its ability to use mobile technology to not only build a database but actually drive live traffic into participating dealerships, and to get customers to interact with the Kawasaki display or salesperson within.

Dealer sales staff was trained on how to decode the game piece by holding it up behind a piece of green film that was built in to several POP elements, including a pocket decoder that the staff could carry.

This allowed the salesperson to interact with the prospect, jumpstarting the selling process and allowing him or her to talk about the GreenLight Deals available on the prospect?s favorite Kawasaki product.

Fully integrated marketing support
The program took advantage of every opportunity to get power sports enthusiasts to participate, starting outside the dealership and closing the loop on the dealership floor. Support included:

? Dedicated spot cable television in April?May
? Online advertising April?September
? Print ad tags in enthusiast magazines
? Social media placement on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
? Direct mail via HSBC Bank billstuffers
? Targeted messages to Kawasaki and partner email databases
? Six-month feature at Kawasaki.com, including homepage takeovers, GreenLight Event microsite and exclusive video content

Local dealer marketing
Using co-op funds, dealers could deploy radio, outdoor, newspaper, online and direct mail media in their local market.

Additionally, dealers could download banners, buttons and exclusive video content to their own Web sites to promote the event.

The creative
Using a bold GreenLight thematic, creative communications employed a consistent, attention-getting look and feel across all program elements.

The GreenLight design allowed for both clear communication of the promotion and for the delivery of the aggressive attitude that the Kawasaki consumer has come to expect from the brand.

Here are examples of the creative:
The landing page

POP Guide

Handheld decoder

Results
While outspent in traditional media by its two biggest competitors ? Honda and Yamaha, the No. 1 and No. 2 players, respectively, in the category ? Kawasaki was the only Japanese manufacturer to actually gain share during the promotion window. Also, it claimed it was unique among its rivals to outpace the category, with all others seeing sales declines greater than the industry average during this period.

Kawasaki captured more than 100,000 opt-in participants in the text-and-win sweepstakes, building a significant database for future marketing efforts.

The program built significant traffic to local dealers during a sales downturn and gained record levels of dealer support and participation.


GILT GROUPE
In 2009, Gilt Groupe strategically and opportunistically used mobile channels to acquire new customers, diversify its user base and drive incremental revenue. 

Gilt?s business centers around daily flash sales of discounted high-end designer goods online. 

Most of the items typically sell out in the first couple of hours, with the most popular items sometimes selling out in just minutes. 

Recognizing the unique nature of its sales format where immediacy and urgency are tantamount, Gilt targeted mobile as the optimal channel to reach its users immediately and directly. 

With the launch of its ?Gilt on the Go? iPhone application, Gilt enabled users to shop its sales via their mobile devices, no matter where they were when sales started.

User reviews of the shopping experience within Gilt?s iPhone application are positive. 

The application maintains the premium visual style and image-driven navigation that Gilt?s Web experience offers, on a small mobile device. It uses push notifications on the iPhone to notify users right when sales start, so they are constantly reminded to return and re-engage with Gilt.

The campaign
The launch of Gilt?s iPhone application was accompanied by an integrated campaign of mobile, online and offline exposure.  

In the mobile space, Stylecaster, a fashion editorial application, sponsored the Gilt application via a promotional campaign. 

Also, innovative pop-up ads were featured in Pandora?s radio music application. 

Gilt?s online campaign included on-site and email marketing, as well as Facebook and Twitter updates via the Gilt fan pages.  

The application also received press mentions in The New York Times online and in Mobile Commerce Daily (see story), a sister publication to Mobile Marketer. 

Offline, Conde Nast-owned fashion and shopping magazine Lucky featured the application in the print version of its magazine.

The Gilt application was also featured in Apple?s retail stores on the demo iPhones during the prime holiday shopping season.

Gilt was able to reach and acquire a different user demographic with the application. Its users acquired online are predominantly female, but the base of mobile users are almost evenly split between male and female. 

The mobile channel drives about 5 percent of overall revenue for Gilt, and remains a great source of growth for Gilt?s men?s business. Gilt?s revenue projection for 2009 was $150 million.

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