Promotions through the Mobile Medium

[Ray]

Yesterday, at the meeting, we all got to talking about Zippo's application on the iPhone which generated 3m downloads, so it was pretty successful. On a related note, I cam accross this article on the backside of the Marketplace section in the WSJ (pg. B6) this morning.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208325352208449.html

Having a picture of a zippo and being able to sway the flame while you move your phone, or pretending to eat Hardees iBurger seem like nice gimmicks. However, the question I have is about the promotional value. I suppose it would help brand awareness, but does it drive people to your business. Per haps, you could use these gimmicks in conjunction with a sweepstakes. Like say take bites out of your iBurger to win a certain prize (via 2D barcode) like a milkshake or a trip to Hawaii. What would be the best way to use mobile promotions to drive traffic to your business?

Also, I was thinking that movie studios could grab hold of these apps. For example, a movie studio could release its trailor on mobile before TV. Another way would to have two seperate trailors, one for TV and one for mobile. I suppose I am just thinking out loud here, but does anyone suppose the mobile Zippo campaign was a success by drawing more revenue? Are there better ways to advertise and promote via mobile?

[Clancy Ryan]

Ray agree with you. If you want to understand why companies keep pushing brands, read this book. It is an excellent read and quite enlightening: Branding Only Works on Cattle by Jonathan Salem Baskin.