Archive for June, 2008
We love sharing the latest new mobile coupons and offers. This post by Justin from MobileMarketingWatch.com is an interesting look at how Subway is using mobile coupons in a new marketing campaign aimed at college students. In addition to distributing coupons, Subway is working with Hothand Wireless to distribute school-related information and news.
“Hothand’s CEO and founder, Randy Jaramillo, said, “university students are a natural way to begin using mobile content and networking technology.” “This is more specific and targeted so that we can control it much easier without having to spend huge amounts of money trying to blanket everybody. We can create communities within the university, merchants and vendors. It benefits all.”
The platform is designed to give each franchisee the power to target very specifically, or on a broad range. For Subway, they could just as easily broadcast their message nationally, or allow each franchisee the power to design and offer their own coupon, etc. on a local level.”
The whole article can be found here.
June 30th, 2008
It’s summertime Codespotters, and as it gets hotter, the beach is a prime location to cool off and beat the heat. The last thing that you want to do is get to the beach and find that it has been closed due to bacteria or pollutants in the water. Thanks to Heal The Bay, a non profit group dedicated to monitoring and keeping the waters of California clean and uncontaminated, you can learn the water condition and quality of your local beach via text message. Through their Beach Report Card program, which grades beaches based on water quality, you can text your local beach to the group, and in return they will text you the beach’s current grade.
To use the Beach Report Card, go to Heal The Bay’s website and look up the beach that you want a grade for. Each beach in Heal The Bay’s database has a keyword assigned to it, or at least to a portion of it. For example, Royal Palms State Beach’s keyword is royalpalms while Redondo Beach’s Avenue I section is avenuei. Text the beach’s designated code to 23907, and instantly you will recieve a message containing the beach’s current grade. The beaches are constantly updated and their grade is up-to-date and current.
While Heal The Bay’s service only works for California beaches, it covers over 100 beaches and spans through 17 coastal counties. Check your local beach today!
June 30th, 2008
Every week I scan the web for new text-to-win sweepstakes and text-based mobile coupons. As you can see from the Codespotter posts for June, it’s easy to find SMS contests that offer users one-step (or at the most two-step) entry requirements. By texting one word to a contest short code number, consumers enter these sweepstakes every day
Examples of national mobile coupon offers are a lot harder to spot. Sure, there are lots of companies providing mobile coupon technology and these vendors are busy signing up brands and consumers — you can read about how to get coupon from Cellfire, Text2Store, Xtra! and other mobile coupon services at www.code.com. But as Steve Smith of Mobile Insider noted in a June 17 post about Cellfire, relatively few US consumers are finding and using mobile coupons:
“The company [Cellfire] has about half a million users and signs up about 1,000 a day. The company points to research showing that mobile users are much more interested in mobile coupons than just about any other kind of mobile marketing or advertising. Given that point, however, and the fact that the company has been doing this for three years on a platform with 230 million potential customers, half a million users still doesn’t sound like much.”
I am one of those half million+ registered Cellfire users and I have also signed up for Text2Store and Xtra and several other mobile coupon offers. My experience is that there is a lot work involved in registering for each service relative to the value and number of the coupons available. Many of the coupons on offer are strictly regional, or provide discounts at restaurant chains rather than the familiar printed grocery coupons.Until mobile coupons become much easier to locate and redeem, I don’t see millions more consumers signing up for them.
The recent announcement that Coupons, Inc (a giant player in online coupon distribution) and Yahoo will be launching a national mobile coupon service may finally put text-to-save on the US consumer map. I will be digging into the details of this new service in future postings.
June 26th, 2008
While JP is tracking how the McCain-Obama political debates are being transformed from sound bites into tweets, I am out scouting for Coke 12-packs and reward codes today to take advantage of the June 25 double points special offer. In case you missed it, here’s the message from Coke
“Enter your points today–earn double points on all 12-pack codes. Text codes to 2653 or enter them at wap.mycokerewards.com”
Or you can go online to www.mycokereward.com and use those extra points to enter yet another sweepstakes.
Tomorrow, I’ll tackle a bigger question (though still not at the presidential campaign level). Why are companies so ready to sponsor text-to-win and mobile sweepstakes this summer and still so slow to roll out easy-to-use mobile coupons?
June 25th, 2008
(spotted through Silicon Alley Insider)
In an interesting suppliment to Codespotter’s earlier article about Barack Obama’s text messaging campaign efforts, a skim through the Silicon Alley Insider alerted me to an interesting Twitter event. As part of this year’s Personal Democracy Forum, a forum which argues and analyzes the role of technology in politics, Obama will be spending the week doing some sparring with his opponent John McCain on issues relating to technology…sort of. Obama will be represented by his tech advisor Mike Nelson, while McCain will be represented by Liz Mair, the online communications director of the Republican National Committee. SMS social networking site Twitter is hosting the debate, which allows Twitter users to “tweet” their questions to the candidates via the website or via SMS. The site is also posting the candidates’ debate on a “Tweetboard” here (although, as the Insider mentions also, the actual debate is pretty hard to read through and understand).
In any case, this debate underscores the increasing role of new technology in politics and political campaigning. While Twitter probably won’t ever be the best forum for presidential debates and campaign stances, it certainly is an intriguing way to bring relevant politics to a new and unexplored arena.
June 24th, 2008
The NBA season isn’t over until 1) Boston fans stop toasting the Celtics 2) the NBA draft picks are final
If you live near Los Angeles, and/or love the LA Clippers, here’s your chance to attend the Clippers press conference announcing their top draft pick and bring home autographed giveaways from a future NBA star player. The NBA draft will be held this week, so you have to text in your pick before 3PM (Pacific time) on June 26 to be eligible.
Text the NAME of the player you think will be drafted as #1 and a short reason why to 69522. Got questions?Go to the LA Clippers sweepstakes web site at www.nba.com/clippers/features/draft08_sweeps.html to see all the contest details. And if you need to take a look at some player stats to make up your mind about the #1 draft, the National Basketball League has its own web site (and an online contest you might want to enter). Just click here: http://www.nba.com/draft2008/nbapickem/home.jsp
June 23rd, 2008
Hungry pizza seekers can order up their favorite pie with a simple text message to their local Papa John’s store. Customers have to first register for an online account on the Papa John’s website, create one or more ”Favorite” pizza and side order combinations. Texting FAV1 to 4PAPA (47272) initiates the ordering process, which is finalized when a Y with the corresponding favorite number is replied (For example, texting Y1 back to 47272 for your #1 pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms plus a large coke). While users can associate a credit card number with their account to instantly ensure a quick payment, they can also specify alternate forms of payment as well as alternate credit cards.
Registered customers can opt in to get special offers, discounts and mobile coupons from Papa John’s. A store locater is also available (to find the Papa John’s closest to you, text a five digit zipcode to 47272).
With their SMS ordering service, Papa John’s provides their customers with quick, easy text based ordering and the inside track on sprecial deals. For more about Papa John’s SMS ordering service, visit their SMS website.
June 18th, 2008
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