Month: August 2014

All over the world people are now part of the growing smartphone market. By the end of 2014, figures released from eMarketer on mobile usage worldwide states that we expect 1.76 billion people to own and use smartphones monthly, up more than 25% over 2013. According to this same report it states that the U.S. will reach majority-smartphone penetration among its population this year along with the U.K. and the Netherlands. Canada and most of Eastern Europe, the EU-5, will make the majority smartphone jump in 2015. So as a marketer, what are you doing to jump on the mobile bandwagon?

On my recent visit in Europe I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to hop on a Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot. We traveled mostly on a Rail Europe pass and all the trains had Internet access, even the local trains in Ireland that weren’t high-speed. Many of the restaurants, bars and cafes we stopped at also were more than happy to give us their Wi-Fi password. Yes, even at the famous Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden in Munich where I took advantage of their Wi-Fi so I could upload this photo to my Facebook page of me enjoying a “Pint”.

I’ve always stated that the #1 reason for a marketer to run a sweepstakes promotion has been to grow their database by collecting personal data from the entry forms. The data has mostly included emails so that companies and brands could start to communicate with these consumers through email marketing. This dialog has enabled them to share their newsletters, product announcements, events, offers, etc. Sweepstakes have also been a good way to grow Facebook fans, and still is.

But now some marketers are using this same promotional tactic to create and build a database of opt-in (SMS) mobile subscribers who may be current or prospective customers. This allows the marketer to initiate an ongoing dialog with these customers via text messages that engage with them directly on their phone, not in their email folder. Studies now show that most consumers, today, want to receive text messages that are relevant and provide them with value. It is not just large brands who can benefit from this, but small businesses as well who are missing the opportunity to grow by not engaging in SMS marketing. The consumers welcome it so it may be the right time to now get on the text message bandwagon.

I have posted here on this blog about a number of mobile, text-to-win sweepstakes promotions that we have run such as the Busy Dog Live Nation Summer Souvenir Sweepstakes or the National Pork Board Grill Grill Giveaway summer program.  One of my blog readers, Marcos Menendez, just sent me information on a mobile text messaging sweepstakes that their company recently launched for a client. Marcos is the Founder and CEO of MOMARES  which runs mobile sweepstakes and SMS programs for clients off their SOLAK Platform. Marcos invited me to enter the “Release Your Inner Wild: Win the Florida Keys Fantasy Fest Getaway to Key West & Marathon”. You need to text WILDKEYS to the shortcode 65047 to enter.”

The MOMARES SOLAK platform however doesn’t just allow an entry from the text message.  Once a participant sends their initial text they receive a text message back that contains this link, www.floridakeyswin.com. asking them to complete an entry form. This is a very easy and simple way to direct someone to a mobile-enabled online form. The form already has the participant’s mobile phone number and the participant needs to complete the other required fields so it can gather their name plus their email and mailing address along with a birth date if required. So if you are running a sweepstakes that has many small prizes, such as gift cards, coupons, etc. you will need mailing addresses. If the sweepstakes has an age requirement such as for any alcohol beverage brand, then this is needed. We can also accomplish getting this extra data with just text messages, however, it requires a little more back and forth with the participant to complete the entry.

In this case of this sweepstakes, when the participant completes the form they receive another text message confirming they have entered and that they are now subscribed. The official rules state they can opt-out at any time, but that they must stay opted-in during the promotion period in order to be eligible to win. So here is an example of how the sponsor, The Monroe County Tourist Development Council, is creating and building their SMS database. Their goal is to run a couple more of these sweepstakes promotions during the next few months.  By doing so they will be able to invite the participants of this first sweepstakes who have stayed opt-ed to enter the new promotions via a text message as well as gain new participants through their other forms of marketing communications.

So this Sponsor has definitely hopped on the mobile bandwagon. If you’re interested in doing the same please feel free to contact me and I will be glad to help get you started.

My two daughters are back at home for a few days. Both are out of college now.  Kelsey is visiting because her sister, Alex, is home on a semester break from Ross University Veterinary School of Medicine. She’s got two weeks off before she has to head back down to St. Kitts, an island in the Caribbean. It probably sounds like a great place to go to school, but she was never so happy to be back in “America” as she posted on her Facebook page along with a photo of her meal at the airport of a burger, fries and a Bud Lite! She also brought home a huge empty suitcase so she can bring more stuff back to St. Kitts with her.

So I will include Alex in the “Back to College” crowd that adds quite a bit to the U.S. economy. The National Retail Federation says that college students and their parents will average $916.48 this year on back-to-school spending compared with $836.83 last year. And it predicts total college spending to hit $48.4 billion. By comparison, it forecasts that parents of kids K through 12 will spend $669.28 this year. This Back-to-College crowd is a key market for many retailers who have come up with some unique promotions this year to connect with them. Macy’s has launched a $50,000 video contest, inviting schools to submit a remix of the classic “Be True to Your School.”

The Macy’s Back to School Lip Dub Contest is giving schools and colleges the opportunity to win up to $25,000. They have created this video posted on the Contest You Tube page that provides many of the details that are listed in the Official Rules.

Contest submissions will begin being accepted on September 4 and run till October 10. The contest is open not only to colleges and universities but also to elementary, middle, and high schools that are located in the United States. Students are invited to upload a Lip Dub video of the school’s students lip-syncing in one continuous take to the song provided by the Sponsor (Macy’s) which is on the Contest Site. They must also include the following information: name of school, name of School Representative, email address, telephone, school identification number, and a statement (maximum of 500 characters) on how Entrant would use the prize.

Three winners will be selected based on the following judging criteria as weighted: school spirit and participation (50%), creativity (30%), and execution (20%).  First Prize school $25,000,  Second Prize school $15,000 and a Third Prize school $10,000. Winners will be announced on or around October 31.

Besides the video contest, Macy’s is sponsoring events such as campus bus shuttle services. transporting students to shopping parties at Macy’s that include DJs, mini-manicures, makeovers and apparel, as well as 25% discounts. Macy’s is using the #MacyBTS hashtag to also promote back to school selections on their Pinterest page.

Macy’s has here some very unique and well thought-out promotional marketing campaigns. However, what’s the first thing my daughter purchased since she’s been home? A new Apple MacBook Air since she spilled water and fried her last laptop two weeks before finals! I’m sure she’ll be hitting some other stores soon.

 

It seems that every time I leave for vacation Facebook decides to make a change to their Promotional Guidelines. This has happened several times to me and this time I read about it upon just returning from an amazing two-week trip around Europe.

On August 7 this post was published on the Facebook Developer’s Page that announced this change to their Platform Policies:

“You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app’s Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.”

So yes, this does means that now you can’t make it mandatory to have someone Like your page first in order to open the app to enter the promotion. From some of the comments that I read on this post there appears to be a few people that are again not very happy with Facebook. Facebook is however giving people up to Nov. 5 (90 days) to make the changes to their apps to comply with this new policy.

When brands first started out building their Facebook pages their main objective was to acquire fans. They wanted a way to drive people to their page and Like it to become a fan. I would tell clients that if they wanted to just grow their fans, along with their database, sweepstakes were the way to go. You could create a simple sweepstakes offer with a Like-gate attached to it so that visitors to your page would have to Like it first in order to access the entry form. So this was a great way to build up a fan base.

That is now a thing of the past. Facebook has evolved into more of an advertising platform for brands which means that businesses can’t reach their “fans” as easy or “free” as they used to. Consumers who “like” a Facebook page will most likely not see the content that this page posts anymore in their News Feed. So this recent policy change does not surprise me.

This year we have been steering our clients away from using the Like-gate approach.  I’ve been telling clients that it may not be a good idea to use a Like-Gate anymore is mostly because now more people are accessing their Facebook account from a mobile device vs a computer. When you require someone to Like the page to enter, they must first sign into Facebook from their mobile device so that the application knows if they are or are not a fan already. This added an extra step and was not a user-friendly entry process.

So do sweepstakes and contest promotions still work on Facebook? Yes, they do, but you clearly have to define what you want to get out of them. No longer is the number of Likes you have on your Facebook page a good measurement of success. Instead marketers need to look at quality in their social media, not quantity. Which means more engagement such as shares, comments, etc. I think Facebook made the right move here which was an obvious change that most marketers were moving towards anyhow.

Next month I’m going to me heading back down to New York City to attend the 3rd Annual Social Media, Sweepstakes and Promotions Digital Compliance Conference put on by the American Conference Institute.  I’m looking forward to again hearing Allison Hendrix, Platform Operations Attorney from Facebook speak. Allison has been a keynote speaker each year at this conference and always has provided some great insights into why Facebook does what it does. There are many other great speakers and colleagues who will also be attending the conference. So please stay tuned for my posts that I’ll share regarding the conference which is Sept. 9 and 10.