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Springer Mountain Farms offers mobile 2D bar code rebates

For the next six months, natural poultry producer Springer Mountain Farms will include promotional codes on product packaging, along with instructions for using the codes with a mobile phone to respond to offers.

Springer Mountain Farms tapped promotions transaction settlement provider Inmar and mobile marketing company Augme Mobile to deliver cents�off promotions to consumers' mobile phones. Consumers can send the codes via text message or scan a 2D bar code to receive instant rewards on their mobile phones.

"Springer Mountain Farms got into 'slightly better than organic chicken' products about 10 years ago, because we thought there was a better way to raise chickens," said Dale Faunce, marketing manager of Springer Mountain Farms, Baldwin, GA. "We used to only make private-label products for supermarkets, so we didn't market much, we hadn't had much experience of how or where to market, but all that's changed.

"We started advertising in magazines newspapers, radio and TV, all the traditional stuff, and all that worked, particularly print coupons, and expanded our demographic from a high level of income required to a little more broad-based," he said. "We started to attract average household income customers."

Springer Mountain Farms is a family-owned poultry business.

Built on kindred relationships within the farming community, Springer Mountain Farms became the first company in America to be certified by the American Humane Association for their humane growing practices and raising poultry on an all vegetable diet without the use of antibiotics or chemical medicines.

Springer Mountain Farms All Natural is distributed nationally, with a wide variety of products for the supermarket and restaurant industries.

The company went from sending 20 -- 22 million print coupons via Sunday newspapers -- helping it communicate with its target demographic, females 35-54 years old -- to 16 million a month ago. Why did those numbers drop?

"Newspaper distribution has been declining, and if I can't distribute my discount coupons that way because newspapers don't have penetration that they once did, I have to explore other options," Mr. Faunce said.

Springer Mountain Farms also wanted to tap into a younger 20-30-year-old demographic.

"But the problem is they don't buy newspapers, so how do I talk to them? How do I get them the discount offer?" Mr. Faunce said. "Internet advertising was so-so -- it wasn't interactive enough.

"With mobile technology changing as rapidly and dramatically as it is, the obvious solution is to get to them on their cell phone, and the closer to the time of their shopping experience the better," he said. "If I can talk to them on their mobile and offer them discounts on their mobile, then all of a sudden I've generated a whole new group of customers.

"It is harder to communicate with that younger demographic, but mobile has to be part of the answer, to communicate with them where they want, how they want and when they want."

Over the course of its mobile campaign, the Springer Mountain Farms program will offer rebates via mobile coupons, free music and other mobile incentives.

This collaborative effort leverages Inmar's Conexions digital promotions settlement platform, Augme Mobile's Ad Life mobile marketing applications, the package production of Graphics Packaging and the micro-payment capabilities of Obopay and other payment service providers, including PayPal.

The result is a completely paperless promotion that fits in with Springer Mountain Farms' natural brand promise and "green" image.

Springer Mountain Farms is using the mobile promotions to target young, mobile shoppers who are looking for ways to stretch their budget and are concerned about their environmental impact.

While the mobile coupon is an industry buzzword, delivering on its promise has faced significant technology barriers in the retail environment. Point�of�sale integration and financial settlement must be addressed for digital promotions to work.

Augme's mobile applications combined with Inmar's Conexions settlement platform does both by giving brands a viable way to deliver mobile offers without the challenges of retail point�of�sale enhancements.

"With the scan-enabled software, 2D tags are a pretty easy way to do promotions," Mr. Faunce said. "It's still early on in the technology, but if the phones can do it, why not take advantage of it?"

The promotions include free ringtones, free music soundtrack downloads and rebates of $4 on one package of Springer Mountain Chicken -- up to $8 if a consumer buys two packages.

"We wanted to figure out how to make mobile coupons work at a supermarket, and supermarkets hate coupons," Mr. Faunce said. "This takes the retailer out of that loop, because we deliver to consumers' checking accounts via their Obopay or PayPal account."

Consumers can scan Springer Mountain Farms package to get a link that they can click to place an automated phone call to the company's live hotline.

Springer Mountain Farms also has a mobile Web site.

"Within two to three weeks from now, we'll be able to host your shopping list, so your wife can put it on her cell phone or computer and you can access that list on your cell phone and pick everything up in the store," Mr. Faunce said.

The partners are also serving interactive ads on wired Web sites such as MetroMix.com.

"You hover your mouse over an ad and a screen pops up with a picture of the 2D tag," Mr. Faunce said.

Springer Mountain Farms is also enhancing its Sunday newspaper free-standing insert drops with mobile bonus coupons -- traditional $1 paper coupons with a built-in $2 mobile bonus offer.

"It's the wrong demographic, but it's a start," Mr. Faunce said.

In late Spring, the company plans to launch a mobile-generated sweepstakes. When consumers scan the mobile 2D bar code tag, they will be automatically entered to win a Smart car.

Consumers will also be able to text keywords such as SPRINGER to the short code 87415 to enter the sweepstakes.

"Augme is the provider of the mobile Web site, the 2D tags and they're handling all the text messaging," Mr. Faunce said. "Inmar is a clearing house for coupons, and it handles the information flow and sends rebates to the proper consumer accounts."

The implementation of the Springer Mountain Farm promotion also represents a host of new digital promotions capabilities available for brands to launch regionally and nationally.

According to Augme Mobile, doing a mobile promotion no longer requires chain�by�chain point�of�sale integration, nor is limited to retailers with loyalty programs.

The company helps brands to run national mobile campaigns across all retailers and use a full range of promotional options: cash incentives, sampling, sweepstakes, loyalty programs and downloads.

Augme Mobile offers a Web�based marketing platform that provides marketers, brands and advertising agencies the means to create, deliver, manage and track mobile interactive marketing campaigns targeting mobile consumers through traditional advertising channels.

Augme Mobile is designed to fulfill the advertiser's need to offer interactive multimedia mobile content while simultaneously satisfying the consumer's desire for easier mobile connectedness.

Potential collaborators can text keyword AM to short code 87415 for more information.

Inmar is a logistics company focused on enabling collaboration between trading partners by providing services for the physical, financial and information flows within the supply chain.

Inmar claims to be the nation's largest provider of promotions logistics and settlement services. Inmar serves more than 1,700 business clients, including manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, and processes more than 3.5 billion transactions annually.

The Conexions product provides a digital settlement platform for all types of promotions involving electronic redemption.

"In the consumer packaged goods world, where Springer Mountain Farms operates, with straight-up mobile coupons, point-of-sale redemption is very challenging, because integration with POS systems is required," said Matthew Tilley, director of marketing for Inmar, Winston-Salem, NC.

"What we are able to do, and the reason Springer Mountain is working with us, is essentially to provide a mobile rebate," he said. "The consumer purchases the product with a 2D code on or in package that can be scanned with a camera phone.

"That overcome challenges of POS integratation by going straight to the consumer," he said. "The reason we're all working together on this is that mobile coupons are a great idea with a lot of promise, but it really isn't possible today in the form that everyone would like it to be."

Inmar says that its platform's best selling point may be its swift time to market.

"Right now, there's not a way to do it other than what we're offering -- a very real, tangible, accessible way to implement a digital promotion for a consumer-packaged-goods company today," Mr. Tilley said. "A lot of the other options out there are good ideas, but they're not ready for primetime just yet."