Build-A-Bear is leveraging its SMS database this holiday season with a campaign that lets consumers build, share and buy customized stuffed animals while also opting in for future marketing.

The retailer has rolled out a holiday-themed keyword and mobile Web experience to drive traffic to Build-A-Bear?s mobile site. Build-A-Bear worked with Vibes on the campaign.

?This holiday season, we are seeing many retailers leverage text messaging to drive shoppers to gamified mobile Web experiences such as our scratch off mobile coupon to drive conversion,? said Julie Novack, senior vice president of mobile solutions at Vibes, Chicago.

?The surprise and delight of these lighter experiences that do not require an app can really lift the brand experience,? she said.

?The Build-A-Bear Workshop dress-up game is an example of how a shopper can personalize their gift and share with their social networks.?

Mobile wish list
Build-A-Bear is leveraging email, SMS, Web and a print promotion in Hearst Corp?s Good Housekeeping to get the word out about its holiday mobile campaign.

Consumers can participate in the campaign by texting in the keyword DRESS to the short code 68710.

From there, consumers are sent a link to the microsite that has been created for the campaign.

The ?Furry friend dress up? microsite lets shoppers pick from four different stuffed animals that can then be customized. By dragging a finger across the screen, accessories can be added to an animal.

The stuffed animals can then be shared to friends and family via Facebook or Twitter.

The microsite also lets children send off their toy to Santa.

Build-A-Bear?s campaign shows how marketers are leveraging mobile in more strategic ways to drive marketing initiatives into 2014.

In this case, leveraging SMS for a holiday-specific campaign lets Build-A-Bear beef up its listserv that can be used to market towards consumers in the future.

SMS remains to be a marketer?s widest-reaching tool, and by adding an interactive holiday-specific campaign, Build-A-Bear is giving its basic text messaging efforts more oomph.

Build-A-Bear also ran an SMS campaign earlier this year that leveraged Passbook to serve consumers an offer. The campaign saw a 58.7 percent install rate for the Passbook portion of the campaign (see story).

Mobile shoppers
Vibes has also released some new data on how consumers plan to use their mobile device this holiday season.

Interestingly, a majority of the activity is not transaction-based.

For example, 53 percent of consumers surveyed said that they would use their mobile devices to look up product information.

Additionally, 34 percent of consumers said that they plan to use their mobile phones as wallets this year.

Given that a majority of mobile wallet activity is more loyalty-based than commerce-based, there will likely be a bigger push for Passbook and mobile wallet campaigns this year.

?This holiday season, retailers are embracing the mobile wallet such as Apple?s Passbook and Google Wallet?s non-payment solution for offers, coupons and loyalty cards,? Ms. Novack said.

?In addition to mobile-wallet activation, we are also seeing a move to more personalized, rich experiences,? she said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York