One Company’s Forward-Thinking Business Approach
Mobile marketing has moved beyond its nascent “prove it” stage and now presents new opportunities to build lucrative customer relationships, tap into new markets and gain further traction in promising ones. One company is helping broadcasters to do just that, using mobile marketing campaigns to build greater loyalty with a key demographic—Hispanics—and ultimately increase revenues.
According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Hispanics are one of the nation’s most rapidly growing demographics – with buying power expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2012. Hispanics are also among the earliest and fastest adopters of mobile technology. According to a recent M:Metrics study, text message usage among Latinos has grown by 39 percent in the past 12 months and their response rate to mobile ads has increased by 20 percent in the past year. Add to this the estimates announced at last month’s CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas – 1.3 billion text messages a day are being sent throughout the U.S. – and it just made good sense to create a network that would provide brands and broadcasters with a premier solution that facilitates real-time, measurable, one-to-one relationships with Hispanic customers.
Enter the Hispanic Mobile Marketing Network
HipCricket’s Hispanic Mobile Marketing Network is comprised of a family of Hispanic media properties (radio and TV broadcasters) that can be leveraged by brand marketers to deliver highly targeted and interactive mobile marketing campaigns directly to the handsets of opted-in, engaged mobile users who are part of the $860 billion Hispanic consumer market. Among the first to join the network are Bustos Media, Lotus Communications and Davidson Media Group. These companies and others collectively represent more than 50 radio and television stations, nearly one million listeners and viewers, 24 overall markets and seven of the top 15 Hispanic markets.
The benefits of the Hispanic Mobile Marketing Network are vast. For broadcasters, the network provides an immediate opportunity to bundle mobile sales by specific targets. This capability gives marketers a media buying alternative to costly regional and national buys. Marketers can then create customized media plans for Hispanic stations in the network and their audiences with a single buy based on the markets, stations and demographics they want to target. In turn, HipCricket helps marketers devise mobile messaging and marketing campaigns, offering assistance in establishing a station loyalty club to initiate special offers. All opted-in mobile users will then receive interactive programs and offers directly from the advertiser. Like all HipCricket programs, the Hispanic Mobile Marketing Network is permission-based, and consumers only receive text messages, alerts and mobile interactions they request. The mobile messages are customized specifically to the consumer’s preferences and needs, which allows the broadcasters and brands to maximize their reach to Hispanic consumers.
Tying it All Together
To ensure a smooth interaction and ultimate mobile marketing success, HipCricket added a bilingual staff to work with a station’s sales team to sell the mobile marketing service to local advertisers. At the onset of the partnership, the station’s designated account manager – available 24 hours a day – visits the station to provide hands on training. The HipCricket system also accommodates the bilingual nature of the Hispanic audience – giving users the choice to opt into English or Spanish versions.
In the Field
HipCricket has already conducted campaigns in Hispanic markets in Texas with great success. In one radio contest, listeners were given the chance to text in subliminal secret words when they were mentioned on-air. The prize? A chance to win a Sprite Sports Gear package and qualify for the grand prize of $4,500. Winners were randomly drawn at the end of each round and the grand prize was awarded to one of the qualifying winners on the last day of the contest. The station received more than 6,ooo text entries, 5,119 of which were unique entries.
In another recent promotion at a Latin station in Houston, the audience was encouraged to listen for the Pepsi – Mariah Text Tone. When listeners heard the text tone, they texted the word ‘pepsi’ to the station’s 5-digit number. Over the course of the campaign 5,447 text entries were received of which 1,364 were unique listeners. Those who texted after the winning entry came in were given discounts on Pepsi products at a local grocery chain.
The beauty of mobile marketing, and HipCricket’s system specifically, is that it provides complete insight into a campaign – not only the number of participants, but the number of unique entries as well. Moreover, in the case of the stations mentioned above, the campaigns gave each the opportunity to further engage their audiences and create an opted-in relationship that can be leveraged moving forward.
In a world where the Hispanic marketing agencies and Hispanic focus are rising to the top more and more every day, HipCricket is providing one of the simplest, most embraced and most effective ways to communicate with that consumer.
Ivan Braiker is the co-founder and CEO of HipCricket Inc., a pioneering mobile marketing software and services company that specializes in producing interactive mobile marketing campaigns that generate new revenue for radio, television, brand and agency clients. The company drives revenue and increases listenership, viewership and loyalty by tapping into the behaviors and interests of more than 136 million Americans. HipCricket’s unique technology creates one-to-one relationships between participants and advertisers, based on the trust of an opt-in only program. Since its launch in 2004, HipCricket has delivered more than 17,000 successful campaigns and outstanding results for the biggest brands and broadcast groups in the U.S., including: Clear Channel Radio, Premiere Radio Networks, Cumulus Radio, Triad Broadcasting Company, Perry Broadcasting Inc., Press Communications, Sandusky Broadcasting, Katz Media Group, Beasley Communications, Bonneville International, Cox Radio, Media General, NBC, Coca-Cola, Staples, and Hershey’s. For more information, please visit www.hipcricket.com.
