Campaign Watch: Levi's Goes SMS - by Tom Dibble

In what is claimed to be the largest outbound SMS campaign to date in the U.S., Levi's took the plunge into mobile marketing. In a "hunt the cwlue" style campaign, Levi's offered a pair of diamond-encrusted jeans that consumers could win by visiting the Levi's Web site, and answering questions and playing virtual games in return for clues as to where the $150,000 jeans were hidden. Levi's aired the final clue in the contest during a 60-second Super Bowl TV commercial.

 

Jessica Day from Media Contacts, the agency for Levi's, said, "Text messaging is a perfect channel for targeting the notoriously hard-to-reach youth audience as it utilizes a medium and a device that they hold in high regard."

 

Is this Levi's campaign the beginning of the long-awaited snowball effect for mobile marketing in the U.S.? I asked Jonathon Linner, CEO of Enpocket, the company that executed the campaign for Media Contacts:

 

WBT: Europe has shown that mobile marketing can work. What barriers exist that might inhibit a comparative take-up in North America?
JL: As mobile marketing catches hold in the U.S., I do not expect barriers to restrain development any more than they did in Europe. Short codes have already been trialled, and I anticipate they'll be introduced by carriers in the coming months. There is limited access currently given to third-party service providers but, as in Europe, an expanding market should open the way for their entry to the market. Equally, pressure for premium rate MO (mobile originated) and MT (mobile terminated) messages will build as carriers and marketers see the success of these offerings in Europe. In fact, speeds of adoption are likely to be faster as the energy of a large market drives mobile marketing forward, while it simply adopts and adapts lessons already learned in Western Europe.

 

WBT: Is there anything the U.S. mobile network operators can do to promote growth in the mobile marketing value chain?
JL: The clear lesson a lead market like the UK shows is that once you provide cross-network operability and introduce models for delivering financial returns to marketers from messaging, the market takes over. The challenge then is to help organizations like the MMA develop codes and best practices. It is vital that self-regulation goes hand in hand with commercial development of the medium.

WBT: How do you see mobile marketing methods changing in the near future?

JL: As in Europe, the big trend is for mobile to become established at the hub of multichannel activity. In the early market, there is a tendency for mobile marketing agencies to act as agency, technology provider, and media owner - in other words, a one-stop shop for all things mobile.

Experience shows that there are intrinsic channel conflicts in this model. Online and traditional agencies will want to get in on the act on the strategic and creative sides to develop offerings to their clients and harmonize these with activity through other media. In buying media, clients will want to buy from agencies that do not have a vested interest in one particular media asset. So mobile marketing agencies will have to decide whether they are structured like the online agencies, or are providers of technology and/or media services to agencies and marketers.

WBT: What will emerging platforms such as MMS bring to the table when it hits these shores?

JL: As in Europe, the prospect of MMS will excite interest. But it will be a while before the penetration and cost of these services reach levels that are significant for more than small-scale, early- adopter marketing. The big medium for a long time yet will be SMS, which has opened so many new ways for brands to engage their customers. U.S. marketers will find that these range from being able to target their specific audience at the right time, in the right place, in a direct and personal manner; to having the means to stimulate interaction through other media at any time, anywhere; to delivering phone numbers, vouchers, invitations for storage and future use; to providing personal alerts, reminders, offers, and information in ways that are far more immediate and compelling than through other media.

 

There is so much you can do with SMS, I am certain it will mushroom into an important medium in the U.S. Signs are that with major activity like the recent Super Bowl activity that Levi's ran to launch their new Type 1 jeans, which included the country's largest ever text campaign through Enpocket, the process is well underway.

 

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