Sara Lee's State Fair Brand Corn Dogs used SMS as part of its Dream House sweepstakes to build a mobile opt-in database and update consumers on prizes they can win.

The campaign included promotions via email, newspaper inserts and the company?s first-ever mobile promotion overlay. The company partnered with Launch Creative Marketing for the promotion.

?Incorporating mobile allowed Launch to expand the limited space we had to communicate with moms,? said Amanda Keating, marketing manager at Launch Creative Marketing, Chicago.

?State Fair Brand was giving away over 10,000 prizes and we wanted to be able to give all the prize details,? she said. ?Using mobile also allowed the brand to create a database of users to continue communication with throughout the nine-month duration of the promotion to prevent participation fatigue.?

Sara Lee is a global manufacturer and marketer of brand-name products for consumers throughout the world.

Launch Creative Marketing is a shopper engagement marketing agency that leverages insights to create brand experiences through branding and packaging, as well as shopper, promotional and digital marketing.

Mobile dream
The Dream House sweepstakes is an interactive online game that gives consumers the opportunity to try and collect all six virtual rooms on the Dream House microsite using codes from promotional packaging.

Consumers had the option of opting in to receive SMS messages from Sara Lee, which updated them about remaining prizes.

In addition, consumers received a link to a mobile version of the Dream House microsite.

?We used SMS to take the promotion on the go, in-stores and anywhere,? Ms. Keating said. ?There is the convenience factor to mobile that is seamless with moms? lifestyles and going mobile created an immediate brand response to consumers who expressed interest in the promotion. 

?The brand can then also send reminder texts to purchase product, or keep consumers up-to-date on how many of the 10,000 prizes were left,? she said. ?State Fair Brand actually awarded the $500,000 grand prize, so every single prize was given away.?

Marketing campaign
During the nine-month-long marketing campaign, the companies found that their target demographic ? moms ? are active online and in mobile.

?We just launched an interactive 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style video on YouTube called 'Mom vs. Mom In Battle Cart Corn Dog,'" Ms. Keating said. ?There is a QR code on State Fair Brand packages that moms can use to check out the video on her phone directly from the product.

?Also, the results from the mobile overlay from the promotion are over 1,900 opt-ins with an 80 percent opt-in retention rate,? she said. ?We've had over 11,000 WAP site visits with an average of 4.5 page views per visitor, which is amazing.?