Direct mail giant Valpak is currently testing the effectiveness of offering advertisers the option of including a mobile call to action on their printed coupons.

Brooklyn, NY-based Chopstix Chinese restaurant is among one of the advertisers testing the program. Chopstix?s coupon asks consumer to text the keyword WOK to short code 21534 to join its mobile VIP club.

?We already have a well-known and established print product and are currently testing SMS to help advertisers get more out of their programs with us,? said Amber DeBlieck, product marketing manager at Valpak, Tampa, FL.

For the Chopstix promotion, consumers get a coupon sent to their phone when they first text in. Then they are asked to join the mobile VIP club to get regular communications from Chopstix.

The mobile call to action makes the restaurant?s direct mail program more measureable and more actionable.

In the past, Valpak advertisers could only count on measuring coupon redemption. With the mobile aspect of the campaign, advertisers have a great follow-up option.

Chopstix, for example, has a database of loyal customers which is now part of its loyalty marketing program.

Here is a screen grab of the Chopstix mobile call to action:

Valpak is currently testing this program in the North East, Midwest and in the South.

Advertisers in the beauty, dining and entertainment sectors are most willing to test the program.

Valpak began testing the effectiveness of mobile calls to action in May.

The testing period ends in August and the company plans to release results in the fourth quarter.

SMS is the obvious choice for Valpak.

ComScore reports 65 percent of mobile subscribers send text messages, compared to about 30 percent using the browser and downloading applications.

Contrary to what most people think, SMS? reach is by no means limited to just American teens. An April 2010 study by Merkle found that 63 percent of U.S. adults 30-39 text, as do 49 percent of adults 40-49.

Integrating SMS into existing direct marketing print programs is highly effective and print, in many ways, becomes the enabler or the trigger to a mobile campaign.

According to the CTIA, consumers exchanged more than 5 billion text messages per day, as of March 2010.

Text messaging is starting to play an even more important role than voice. According to Nielsen Mobile, the average consumer sends 584 messages versus using less than 200 voice minutes. 

Additionally, 95 percent of existing mobile contracts have SMS built into the agreement and more than 90 percent of text messages are opened and read compared to less than 40 percent of all email solicitations.

However, Valpak has more in mind than just SMS.

?We are looking at other things,? Ms. DeBlieck said. ?We have iPhone, Android, Palm and BlackBerry apps and have a mobile version of our site.

?We are seeing a lot of people gravitating towards that as a means of browsing our deals,? she said.

Final Take 
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