City of Baltimore targets youth demographic via mobile club
August 12, 2009
Join the mobile club
The city of Baltimore has launched a mobile marketing effort to promote its "Pledge to Engage in Actions Considerate of Everyone (PEACE)" initiative -- a community activist program which aims to highlight the many positive activities offered by the Department of Recreation and Parks and to create fun, safe, social activities for local youths.
Through the program, the city hopes to connect directly with adolescents through their most personal possession, their mobile phone. HipCricket is the mastermind behind the mobile effort.
"This campaign talks to the ubiquity of mobile within this demographic," said Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer at HipCricket, Kirkland, WA. "Mobile is a great way to provide info to this group and since the event had a lot of changes and updates.
"Why wouldn't we communicate with our customers the way that they talk to one another," he said.
Sponsored by the Mayor's office, the Peace Baltimore Mobile Club initiative informs youths of local area activities through their mobile phones.
Jeff Hasen is chief marketing officer of Hipcricket + Augme Technologies
HipCricket is a mobile marketing firm. Other clients include Macy's Alaska Airlines Coca-Cola and Staples.
The Peace Baltimore Text Club was created by the city of Baltimore in conjunction with various community and business partners including Waterfront Partnership, the Maryland Transit Administration, Downtown Partnership, Visit Baltimore (formerly BACVA), and Cordish and Company.
The initiative began on June 25 with a kick-off event at ESPN Zone and was advertised by flyers and by airing 41 on-air promotions on radio station 92Q in Baltimore.
All promotions encouraged listeners to text the word PEACE to the station's short code to become part of the Peace Baltimore text club.
Once signed up, text club members receive notifications of upcoming events and opportunities for discounts from local businesses. In the first week alone, the program received 1,012 opt-in participants, a number which continues to grow.
"Marketing to this demographic brings marketers a lot of opportunities," Mr. Hasen said. "The goal was to get a thousand members by year's end and the campaign achieved more than a thousand in the first week.
"As of now the number of signups is almost at 2,500 and growing constantly," he said. "This is the first time the Mayor's office has applied mobile and it is proving to be affective."