SMS case study - NHL's Washington Capitals
December 17, 2009
Mobile engagement
Name and city and state of marketer:
National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals
Name and city and state of agency or marketing services firm:
Acuity Mobile, Chicago
Campaign/program name:
Caps Mobile Fantasy Challenge
Common short code and keywords used:
Text FANTASY to short code 43803
Objective:
The objective of the Fantasy Challenge is to select one Capital forward and one Capital defenseman for each Capital game and accumulate the most points according to the scoring system to win Caps prizes.
The Washington Capitals
Target audience:
Tech-savvy sports fans
Strategy:
Overall just engage the fan more, have them pay attention to the team more often and tune in to our radio and television broadcasts to track their selected players.
Call to action:
Promoted via Web ads, TV and radio reads and commercials and in-game ads, consumers are asked to text the keyword FANTASY to 43803.
Tactics:
Caps Mobile Fantasy Challenge content engages fans and gives them the chance to win great prizes on a monthly or per season basis.
The entire game is played by text message and there is a mobile Web component–so fans can check the leader board, rules and their individual score (see http://m.caps.acumob.com).
After each game participants receive a text message with their score and rank.
The Capitals are able to schedule a single message to go to all participants–but by using tokens, the personalized score information is what gets delivered.
Results:
So far, 2392 fans have signed up to play the Fantasy Text Challenge. The game has generated more than 145,000 MT messages to date.
What next:
Hopefully this program will lead to more Capitals Mobile Club subscriptions and eventually sponsorship of either the game or the entire mobile initiative.
Additionally, we are considering developing an integrated game that encompasses mobile and online, WAP and even an application.
Executive’s name, title and company for response attribution:
Kara Atkinson, vice president of client delivery at Acuity Mobile, Chicago.
Quote from client:
“We are always looking to engage the fan and raise affinity to higher levels and this helps us achieve this,” said Michael Chan, senior marketing manager at the Washington Capitals