Viral – where catching it is a good thing!

In the 365 and a quarter days that make up our year, there are plenty of holidays/ religious days/ public holidays/ school holidays and other reasons not to be at work.

With this in mind, there are many holidays that can be used to market a product in the Mobile arena.

A popular example is Valentine’s Day. Usually only directly relate brands can run Valentines’ day promotions – so if you are not in the chocolate, gift card or flowers game, it’s pretty hard to run a campaign.

Not so anymore with .Mobi

The following are some examples of Mobi campaigns run around Valentine’s Day:

As Valentine’s Day is about gift and giving, Tools for Love  was created for US Mobile operator Sprint. It offered customers the ability to 'tart up their mobile messages with a TXT Romantifier and have their personal love messages delivered in the dulcet tones of Isaac Hayes. Then they could explore Sprint’s handsets that made the most suitable Valentine’s presents for one’s sweetheart'.

Tools for Love campaign

Another example was used to help stress the importance of fresh breath in the run up to Valentine’s Day. A mouthwash company launched a dual Catch Kisses mobile and Web campaign. The mobile site allowed customers to send virtual kisses to a lover or friend, with the chance to win a date with a reality TV celebrity.

The promotion exceeded expectations. The mobile site attracted 300 per cent more visitors, with 450 per cent more kisses being sent than industry standards. This all helped to lift sales of their mouthwash over the season.

Catch Kisses campaign

One of the campaigns I like is a 'Camping in parts'. The UK government launched such a campaign with the aim of providing education about teenage-pregnancy. This topic is not the easiest to pass onto teenagers who know 'everything' and so the campaign was designed around Valentine’s Day and a Mobi site.

The mobile-interactive drama was started on the Mobi site on 9 January 2009. It followed the lives of six teenagers in 22 weekly 60-second episodes. The storyline conveyed the safe-sex message and viewers were encouraged to SMS in and enter the debate on that week’s topic and thereby influence the story line.

Why do these campaigns work?

There are three main reasons that have been attributed to their success.

1. Viral peer-to-peer

What this means, is that if you received a link to the next Mobi episode, “Catch Kiss” or a Mobile Greeting Card, chances are that you will used the same service to send your own Mobi Greeting Card to your friends. They will in turn use the service to send to their friends etc. etc. The process repeats itself exponentially and the campaign takes on a life of its own.

2. Mobile audience

The mobile audience is far more receptive to interact with their mobile phone. There are lots of people who are still frightened of their computer, but are able to easily navigate around their mobile phone.

3. The lines

Using Mobi allows brands to blur the lines between traditional advertising and communication with consumers. It allows brands to have real-time interaction with consumers and adapt as their consumers change.

Liron Segev

CEO, Swift Telecoms