Magic Johnson Enterprises ran a mobile marketing campaign surrounding the 2009 National Minority Supplier Development Council Annual Conference in New Orleans.

MJE teamed up with Best Buy for the cobranded mobile campaign in association with MJE?s presence at the conference. The mobile campaign represents a strong multicultural foray into mobile, as the urban and multicultural consumer segment over-indexes in mobile consumption more than 150 percent above the general market.

?This is a teaser of our B2B and B2C strategy, around digital, mobile and online branded entertainment properties that we?ll be launching in 2010,? said Ervin ?Magic? Johnson, chairman of Magic Johnson Enterprises, Beverly Hills, CA.

?This play will also include content creation, licensing, online and mobile distribution, application development and new media brand partnerships and business development,? he said.

Magic Johnson Enterprises, formed in 1987, serves as a catalyst for community and economic empowerment by making available high-quality entertainment, products and services that answer the demands of ethnically diverse urban communities.

Campaign details
Signage at the National Minority Supplier Development conference asked people to text the keyword MAGIC to short code 41444.

Attendees that texted in were asked to join Magic Johnson?s mob to get updates and exclusive content. Participants just needed to reply ?Y.?

Conference attendees that texted in were entered to win a $500 Best Buy gift card and a chance to win a jersey signed and presented by Magic Johnson at the event.

The opt-in rate for the SMS campaign was between 10-15 percent.

While MJE?s new media division focuses on new media insights, strategies and execution around the urban and multicultural segment, the mobile campaign served several purposes.

The first was demonstrating the use of mobile to augment the brand?s CRM database efforts, and the second was to use mobile as a way to engage conference goers with the MJE brand and one of its major brand partners, Best Buy.

Best Buy is no newbie when it comes to mobile marketing. The electronics retailer saw good results via an iPhone campaign it did, targeting consumers listening to music on Pandora?s application for the smartphone.

Best Buy advertised within the Pandora iPhone application with a sponsorship screen and lay-over ads that brought consumers to the retailer?s landing page without stopping the music experience. The ads averaged 2.5 percent to 3 percent click-throughs daily.

?We thought this was an incredibly creative opportunity that was brought to us by MJE, our urban and multicultural consulting partner, knowing that this consumer segment over-indexes in online and mobile usage and content consumption,? said Herschel Herndon, vice president of multicultural relations and market development at Best Buy, Minneapolis, MN.

?This also demonstrates Best Buy?s focus on mobile as a key component to our overall  corporate expansion,? he said.