Over a 6 week promotional campaign, Cricket Wireless will drive consumers to the Cricket website to increase their subscriber base.  Each week listeners will be given a different keyword to text in to win one of many grand prizes including cell phones, prize packages and gift cards. The consumer will then immediately receive a text message back informing them if they are an instant winner.  Even participants who are not instant winners will still be directed to the Cricket website to download free digital content and be entered to win one of the grand prizes.

3Cinteractive is providing complete technology fulfillment for the promotion including website integration, the mobile application, registering winners, and redemption tools. “3Ci’s comprehensive involvement in the campaign allows Cricket to focus on their clients and branding,” says Mark Smith, 3Ci’s COO. “It was really exciting to  work on such an extensive project where we not only designed the mobile application, but also the web component of the promotion.”

Global advertising agency McCann Erickson has teamed up with 3Cinteractive to launch a mobile marketing campaign for the US Army.  The campaign, which targets high school and college students, will help the Army identify potential recruits and converse with those interested in serving the Army.  The mobile program will provide information on their 40k scholarship, skills and training, and other benefits of joining the Army.

Students will see the call to action in their school newspapers prompting them to text a keyword to be entered for the chance to win a Nintendo Wii and receive information about the benefits of joining the Army. In order to be entered in the contest, they will be required to respond via SMS with their name and birth date.  To help the ARMY compile a list of interested people, 3Ci will post the information received from the text messages to the Army’s recruitment database.

“For the US Army’s target demographic, there is no better way to create a conversation than by using SMS,” said Chris Field.  “We feel that this mobile campaign will increase the effectiveness of the Army’s advertising strategy and will ultimately generate an interest in a career in the US Army.”

- Karly

In June, I wrote an article, .  Now that Apple’s AppStore is just shy of 10,000 applications, what are you doing to differentiate your application?  Most app developers are doing nothing, waiting for Apple’s Push Notification Service.

While I am sure Apple’s service won’t disappoint, it’s does little for differentiating new applications.  I’ve gone through several applications, that have tried using alert messages for launching new applications and they are more bothersome than effective.

With 10,000 applications in the Appstore, unless you’re in the top 25, it’s very difficult for new consumers to find your application.  Developers need to be including a mobile opt-in on their website so consumers can sign up for text alerts.  This way, an AppStore link can be delivered right to their iPhone when you’re ready to download.  The massive turn-around will differentiate the app and—if your crowd is sizable—push you into the 25 most popular.

- Ainsworth

Those familiar with 3Ci know we preach the Art & Science of Mobile Marketing. The Art being the program submission and carrier relationship process and The Science being the platform. But even the Science has a bit of Art.

As one of guys that demos our platform, I’ve spent time learning the best practices. Special credit goes to Guy Kawasaki, for How to Be a Demo God and Dave Winer, for Demoing Software for Fun and Profit.

1. Make Sure Everyone Is Prepared
When demoing a platform, it’s important to make sure the audience brings their mobile phone. For a WebEx demonstration you will experience lag between the presenter and the audience; bring two laptops so you can adjust to the lag. Talking through lag points will smooth over WebEx’s rough edges.

2. Know The Demo Process
This goes along with setting up in advance. Knowing your cadence, and structuring files accordingly, will keep the focus on your platform. If you’re going off-site, it will help you understand what you need to bring with you.

3. Get To It
If your technology platform is your product, minimize the time it takes to get started. The more talking you do beforehand, the less attention the user will have on the demo. Focus is everything.

4. “Do The Last Thing First”
Since Guy stole it from Peter Cohan, I felt obligated to steal it too. Guy adds, “You have about one minute to captivate your audience, so don’t try building to a crescendo. Start with ’shock and awe.’” Dave Winer adds, “Don’t start with talk. Make something happen on the screen.”

5. Show the “how” Second.
Do not lose your audience in how it works. Start with the bang and then work backwards.

6. Minimize Points to Derail
This applies to questions and jargon. Save the questions until the end, so you can stay on pace and keep the audience’s attention. At the same time, minimize jargon that will lose the audience or stir questions.

Here are the seasonings to make the demo extra special:

- Make sure you use and enjoy the software you are demoing. If you don’t, it will show.
- Throw in one advanced feature. For me, taking a consumer beyond a simple mobile marketing campaign, and including a POST or GET with Campaign Designer is the perfect way to close a demo.

As always, contact us for a walk-through of our technology.

- Ainsworth

HD Radio has teamed up with 3Cinteractive to develop an interactive mobile marketing campaign to increase brand awareness, activate potential clients, and drive sales of the HD Radio receivers.  3Ci created a 13-week campaign to help promote digitally broadcasted radio.  Using a call to action in HD’s radio spots, listeners were prompted to text in for the chance to win an HD radio and to receive HD Radio SMS Broadcasts.

Through a series of creative mobile messages, polls and offers, HD was able to interact with potential buyers and deliver key features of HD Radio.  The SMS campaign included a $50 rebate to the members of the HD database, which led to the sale of 6,000 HD Radio receivers. 3Ci Chairman and former radio executive David Ross stated, “We were really pleased to help increase HD awareness, reach, and ROI though the sale of new HD units.”

- Karly Dreker

I read a great article from The Marketing Student that covered how Generation Y is changing marketing and I’d like to expand a bit on David’s ideas.

First, a quick rundown of David’s concepts (Full Article Here). David graphed the communication habits of Boomers, Gen X-ers, and Generation Y.

David’s post continues on to discuss how these channels are used, and I’d like to take a look at how this affects direct marketers.

Direct marketing to the Boomer generation was the easiest; after all, postal mail and phone calls were regular forms of communication. Although I laugh at the thought, I can imagine people used to rush to the mailbox to see if they had any letters. Lacing this communication with the casual mailer or telemarketing call was successful because people trusted that medium for its relevancy.

For Gen-X it was similar, but AOL added a bit more to the mix. Direct mailers were overwhelming, and the slowness of snail-mail reduced its relevancy. A letter from a mailer was never as up-to-date as an e-mail or instant message; a direct mailer, was never as relevant as a newsletter or marketing e-mail. Interestingly enough, in David’s graphs he mentions instant message for Generation Y, but not for Gen-X; if you remember AOL had both e-mail and instant message. While IM would eventually win out as more relevant than e-mail, it wasn’t an easy medium to target as it didn’t have an “idle” feature that would allow messages to be delivered while the user was offline. This is probably one of the reasons IM has survived, somewhat unregulated, and has not had the same fall-out as e-mail.

Users are more likely to trust and respond to a medium that is used to keep in touch with what society, and more specifically, friends are doing.

Generation Y is overloaded with channels. From social networks to e-mail and instant message, most of them are noise. Thanks to GMail’s powerful SPAM filter, e-mail has been somewhat saved, but Gen Y does not check personal e-mail as frequently as their elders. Gen Y is also wary of signing up for newsletters or registering for a website with their actual e-mail (read: Gen-Y knows how direct marketers handle e-mail). Because e-mail is less relevant to Gen Y’s friends and family, it is a less effective marketing channel. Wall posts and PM’s are a bit more relative, but it’s nearly impossible to gain access to a Facebook user’s inbox or wall, and legitimate marketers would never try.

If you take one more look at David’s graphs, txt is the new channel that remains unscathed. Compared to IM, txt messaging has the advantages of being on-person and able to receive idle or off-line messages. And, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s less likely to follow e-mail’s fate because of the carrier approval process and universal keywords.

But, I saved David’s best graph for last:

It is extremely difficult to jump straight to a face-to-face meeting or phone call without somehow warming up the contact. Consumers are wary of sudden phone calls or face-to-face pitches, this is why these mediums are more urgent yet less frequent. David’s urgency graph is actually the funnel from initial contact to a face-to-face meeting, or the final purchase. As you move to the right of his graph, the lead gets hot, and the user is more likely to make the final jump.

Brands are complaining that the 18-25 year olds are locked in social networks that are difficult to penetrate. They are correct, and while Facebook, et al. can be an effective target audience, the current PPC and PPV models Facebook provides are not the right methods to reach that audience. When it comes to communication, and relevancy, 18-25 year olds are locked in text messaging.

- Ainsworth

The following is part 2 of a 3 part introduction to mobile marketing best practices.  You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

The beautiful thing about mobile marketing is its ability to act as both a capture medium and a conversion medium.  Ideally, successful mobile programs will serve as a revenue generator rather than a marketing expense.  Other applications leverage text messaging as a more direct, less expensive alternative to achieve traditional marketing or communication objectives.   Once your programs have reached critical mass, you can begin considering methods to convert your database into revenue.

Just as we do not recommend buying third party lists, selling your opt-in list is a poor way of monetizing your hard work.  If possible, construct your mobile marketing message to have a response that occurs on the handset.  This has proven to be an extremely successful approach in mobile marketing for content providers offering ringtones and wallpapers as the call-to-action, download, and product were all received on the handset.  Conversions are still very high when the end-user is required to convert outside of the handset by visiting a website or store, however, a conversion that happens on the handset, keeping a user in his/her context, limits the barriers to entry.

Users love the convenience and instant gratification of mobile technology.  Appeal to that desire, and your conversion rates will directly reflect ease of use and immediate gratification.
If you are driving consumers outside of the handset, such as visiting a full html website, be very clear with the offer to the end users.  While a baited call-to-action may receive more conversions from handset to website, the conversion from website to product will not be any better.  An honest call-to-action will have great conversion rates and leave consumers satisfied with your mobile offering.

Finally, send good offers!  You’re participating in one of the most direct and powerful marketing mediums ever: a billboard in consumers’ pockets!  Send users something that makes them feel like a VIP.  Remember - text messages, even on an unlimited plan, are a cost to the consumer; don’t take advantage of that.  Send reasonable offers to your targeted groups and your consumers will happily reward you with high response rates.

-Ainsworth