Mobile sweepstakes campaign blends well with Smoothie King

By Giselle Abramovich

March 31, 2008

Smooth operator

Email firm Fishbowl is offering mobile marketing services to Smoothie King, a national chain that makes custom-blended smoothies with fruit, juices and nutritional supplements.

Fishbowl launched its first mobile sweepstakes campaign this month for Smoothie King. Running through April 28, the campaign encourages Smoothie King customers to text “SKWIN” to 55022 daily for a chance to win one of 20 $1,000 “Swimsuit Weekend” prizes.

“We provide email marketing services for the restaurant industry, which is always looking for ways to identify their customers after they leave the door,” said Michael Murray, chief marketing officer of Fishbowl, Alexandria, VA. “ Mobile is a natural extension of our initial services.”

The Smoothie King promotion is supported by in-store signage, national radio, print and online media and an interactive microsite at http://www.skgetaway.com where guests can also enter to win.

Once sweepstake participants text “SKWIN” to the short code, they are then asked to opt-in for future Smoothie King promotions.

Marketing in fine form

“Mobile is that close kissing cousin to our current efforts,” Mr. Murray said. “Its how we make it easy for restaurants to identify their customers and people can get information about the brands they are interested in.

“Mobile activates this,” he said. “People get information from brands that they are interested in and this becomes a loyalty opt-in program.”

Smoothie King focuses mostly on its beverages and good service and needed a third party to help manage its marketing efforts.

“Smoothie King’s guests are always on the go, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer text messaging as a quick and easy way for them to take part in our Swimsuit Weekend sweepstakes,” said Cindy Kuhnau, co-founder of Smoothie King.

In addition to list-building and sweepstakes, Fishbowl will also feature time-based messaging, polling and surveys that, like email, will drive sales and customer retention and increase brand awareness and customer frequency.

Smoothie King customers are a young mobile audience. Therefore, Fishbowl does not expect to face a challenge to get consumers to participate.

At the same time, with campaigns like this, Fishbowl is ultimately building a database of mobile numbers.

“For the first time, Smoothie King guests will be given the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, I am interested in you and would like more information,’” Mr. Murray said. “If people like your brand, they will opt-in.”