Mobile marketing is particularly valuable for things that happen in real time, such as sporting events, concerts, conferences, and conventions. Savvy marketers can reach a targeted consumer base exactly when the consumer has the desire to interact. This type of mobile marketing can make an event run more smoothly, create goodwill with attendees, and enable the organizers to build a mobile marketing database of contact information to use in subsequent marketing efforts. The following are some examples of event-based mobile marketing:
• Sporting events—Many stadiums have begun to encourage interaction by creating text-in contests and polling, revealing the results to visitors while they are still in the venue. When visitors text in a response to the prompt, an auto-response can be sent, encouraging them to opt in for team statistics and discounts on tickets, food, and beverages in the venue.
• Concerts and clubs—Visitors can also be reached with contests and polls. Attendees can be encouraged to send pictures or text from their mobile phone to a particular short code, and those messages can quickly be displayed on a large monitor in the venue, to add to the experience. Alternately, the venue can encourage visitors to text in when they hear a song that they like so that a link to a downloadable ring-tone or MP3 can be sent back. MP3s and other downloads that are promoted at the event can even be set up with short pre-roll advertisements or branded message that remind the recipient about the venue or about upcoming shows.
• Conferences and conventions—Marketers have the opportunity to leverage many services that can be consumed on the mobile phone. For example, the event might sponsor or provide such things as free WiFi and text-message notifications. Conferences can offer name badges that mobile phones can scan, to immediately enter new contacts into the phone.
Events Case Study 1
At the Pick 'n Pay Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town, cyclists were encouraged to enter a contest hosted by Powerade to win prizes at the event. To participate, they had to download a packet of free content to their phone. The content included Powerade ringtones and wallpapers, along with a bar code that would be scanned off the phone to determine whether the recipient had won. The initiative helped reinforce the brand with its target market, but it also did a good job of driving visitors to the booth at the event, which increased the sales of other products offered that day.
Events Case Study 2
At the Event Marketing Summit in Chicago in 2009, attendees were encouraged to text "EMSUMMIT" to a short code to interact more with the event. After opting in, attendees could get schedule updates and reminders on their phone, but they could also interact with speakers in real time by texting comments or questions to be
displayed on the venues main screen. A company called Mozes provided the text-to-screen capability as part of a self-promotion campaign at the event, so participants also received text messages reminding them to visit the Mozes booth at the show to enter more raffles and learn more about the technology.
Events Case Study 3
In 2007 in the United Kingdom, at an event called V Festival (sponsored by Virgin Mobile), concertgoers and festival attendees were encouraged to download a Mobile Festival Survival Kit that included a variety pack of different content for their phones. Multiple mobile survival kits were distributed, and they included things such as brightly colored flashing screen savers to help friends find each other in the dark and short animations of a flame, to be held up in place of a lighter during concert ballads. The survival kit also encouraged people to sign up for text messages to alert them when different bands were about to go on stage.
